Outgoing Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley will receive a cash bonus somewhere near the $400,000 mark as he ends his 13-year stay at the club.

7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary has exclusive details of the backdated payout, which is from money owed to Hinkley dating back to the COVID period of 2020 and 2021.

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Cleary also said on Seven’s The Agenda Setters that the $400K will come out of the club’s soft cap (the amount of money an AFL club can spend on its football department) next year.

“(Ken Hinkley) will walk away from the Port Adelaide Football Club with a cheque in the vicinity of $400,000, in that ballpark, from his time coaching Port Adelaide,” Cleary said.

“Now that is largely in part thanks to money he deferred from earlier in his contract.

“His 2025 deal is probably the biggest year of any money he received at the Port Adelaide footy club ... (the extra money) comes from the COVID years when the soft cap was reduced.

“Ken deferred money later into his time. He’s owed money still into 2026 and that money will sit in the soft cap.

“So potentially, that could play a role in what (Port) do when they go and target other coaches around Josh Carr next year.”

Cleary was asked if the arrangement was “strange”.

“Other coaches have done it, but the fact it’s still going on until 2026, so essentially, five or six year after COVID, is a little bit strange, but that’s what Port Adelaide prioritised to keep money free around the COVID years,” Cleary said.

The 58-year-old, who took the reins at Port in 2013, will officially coach his last game for the Power on Friday night when they host Gold Coast at Adelaide Oval.

It will be an emotional night for the club with much-loved veteran and former captain Travis Boak also set to feature in his final game as a player.

But as that curtain closes, Carr will take over and he will inherit an immediate problem, and that is a big hole in the soft cap.

Expert Seven commentator Kane Cornes also said there was another problem for Carr, and that was the “passmark” for the first-year coach next year was a grand final.

“This is the problem for Port Adelaide because essentially, they’ve made a prelim (in 2024), which wasn’t good enough.,” Cornes said.

“They sacked the coach after he made a prelim without (Kane) Farrell, without (Dan) Houston, without a couple of key players, and it didn’t work out for them in that game.

“So the passmark, unfortunately, is a grand final ... the supporters have been absolutely hysterical. They have wanted to move on from Ken Hinkley ... they think the last for four or five years (have been a) ‘failure’, and I’m sitting back and saying, ‘Well, he made a prelim. It was a pretty good effort,’.

“So for Josh, with the chips all in, every draft pick is gone. there is money in the salary cap. they’re clearly going to be aggressive, but unfortunately, it is a grand final (or bust).”

From 297 games at the helm, Hinkley has a winning percentage of 58.45 - higher than renowned master coaches such as Alastair Clarkson, Mick Malthouse, Kevin Sheedy and Ron Barassi.

But that quartet won premierships, unlike Hinkley, who holds the unwanted record of most VFL/AFL games coached without reaching a grand final.

“It stings a lot,” said Hinkley, who took Port to the playoffs in seven of his 13 years, but lost four preliminary finals.

“I mean, that’s what you set out to do.

“You look at the results of a coach, and ultimately your result is to get to a grand final and win a grand final.

“As harsh as that it is, we didn’t get there.

“The winning record is great ... but the club wanted to win (a flag) and we all didn’t quite get there.”

Hinkley admitted he wasn’t “super keen” in 2012 to pitch for the Port job after previously being in the running, then overlooked, for the role at Richmond and Geelong.

But with some prompting from family, the then Gold Coast assistant decided on “one more time to have a crack”.

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Port had approached a series of higher-profile candidates, including Chris Scott and Rodney Eade, who rejected the overtures, leading Hinkley to declare when appointed in October 2012 that he was “the last man standing”.

“I’m the right man leaving too, now,” he said at his last pre-match media conference, watched by Port’s men’s and women’s players and club staffers.

“We’ve had a great journey together and it has been full of ups and downs but one I’m incredibly proud of.”

The 58-year-old admitted some parts of the coaching role were “pretty average”.

“But that chase, that thrill of victory, that will always keep you going as a coach,” he said.

“There’s parts - you wake up at three in the morning. And you didn’t want to wake up some mornings.

“But overall, the job is so satisfying and it’s such a great job to have and we’re honoured to have that job as a senior coach for an AFL footy club.

“It was just about the players and watching them win.

“Five minutes after a game, when you get a victory with them, it is enough - that is enough to drive you to keep doing this for your entire life.”

Hinkley described Port as a “really successful footy club, particularly the last five years where we won a lot of football matches”.

“But there were plenty of times, it seemed like after every loss, it was like ‘it’s time for you to go’,” he said.

“I am staggered that I survived this long, to be honest.”

- With AAP