Assistant coach Hamish Hartlett was promoted ahead of the 2026 season to take responsibility for contest, stoppage and opposition analysis. 

After two seasons as an AFL development coach, while also leading the SANFL side, the 193-game Power player continues to utilise his vision, creativity and football smarts to get the most out of his playing group. 

Fronting the Adelaide media on Wednesday, Hartlett expanded on his new position, discussed game plan changes, and spoke on individual player progress. 

Hartlett on his new role as assistant coach 
“It's been good. Little bit more responsibility around the place, which is nice, working really closely with Stuey Dew and Jacob Surjan, and particularly in the midfield group. I’m overseeing our general play contest, bit of long down the line stuff, having a look at a bit of stoppage stuff that we're doing, and then some opposition analysis, which will come over the next three or four weeks, as we get a bit closer to games. So there’s a little bit there, but it's been great. I've been really enjoying it so far. 

“Definitely Carry’s (Josh Carr) allowed me the freedom to come with my own ideas and educate the game plan, or parts of the game plan that I own, the way I want to, which is great. He's obviously got some thoughts and ideas around particularly the contest part of the game as well. I think that's the beauty about the coaching group we've got at the moment. It's very collaborative. Everyone's open to everyone else's ideas, and yeah, I'm happy to own that part of the game plan.” 

Hartlett on how the new role unfolded 
“I’d pretty much gotten my head around coaching the Magpies again for the upcoming season. I was going to change my development coaching role from the defensive group to the midfield group. So that was a slight change that was going to be coming for this season. But obviously the stuff with Goldy getting poached by Collingwood came about pretty quickly. As you mentioned, Darren Reeves was going to be the man for this role, but we had to adjust some things on the fly, and so I found myself in this position. Carry gave me the call and said, mate, do you want to step up into the role? And I said, yeah, absolutely. So super appreciative of the club for the opportunity, and having the trust to step into the role.” 

Hartlett on being surrounded by new coaches 
“It’s been great. I suppose you don't know what you don't know until there is a bit of a change. And the beauty about what we've been able to do this season so far is bringing a whole heap of experiences from other clubs. There'd be 30 to 40 years’ worth of AFL coaching experience that's come into the building with different experiences. And for a young coach like me, who is still developing and finding my way, it's incredible to be surrounded by those types of people. So as I mentioned, I’m working really closely with Dewy (Stuart Dew), Collo (Andy Collins) comes in with tons of experience from Hawthorn, and I’ve got that relationship with him from playing underneath him at West Adelaide a long, long time ago. Luke Webster's come from West Coast and Carlton and been exceptional the way he presents and the way he educates. So very, very fortunate to be surrounded by great minds and lots of experience.” 

Hartlett on how his workload looks in the new role 
“I think in terms of workload perspective, that basically the nights that I was spending out with the Magpies, a couple of nights a week, is now essentially being filled by watching a bit more of the AFL training sessions in a bit more depth, and then having to organise presentations and a bit of education stuff. So that's probably where the change has come, there's certainly more onus on me to educate the group and present in front of the group and to run some more training drills, which I'm becoming more and more comfortable doing.” 

Hartlett on being a Port Adelaide person for a long time 
“I think for any assistant coach that has spent enough time within the AFL system like, chances are you're going to have to relocate or do something different at some point in time. You know, Dewy, Carry’s done it, Collo a couple of times, and lots of coaches I’ve had previously as well. So I guess that that thought has crossed my mind. I've had certain conversations around that, but for where I'm at with my personal life with my young family that I’ve got, to be able to stay here and then have the new coaches come in with all their different experiences, I think has worked out absolutely perfectly for me from a personal point of view.” 

Hartlett on how things might look different on field 
“There's definitely been a lot of change in some of the methods and the processes behind the scenes that we're going about as coaches. On field, there will be a noticeable change, particularly in the way we defend, I think as a group, I think it's been mentioned once or twice previously as well in recent weeks, that there's going to be a little bit more freedom and flexibility with what we're doing in offence. Now that's not to say that there's no plan around that, but guys are just going to have a few more choices with ball in hand. So there'll be, what we hope, will be some notable change for the better, which again, creates a great freshness for the for the playing group.” 

Hartlett on Jason Horne-Francis 
“It's been great for Horny to have spent two or three training drills out on the track with us today. He's done a fair bit of work in rehab over the last couple of months. It's not a place that he particularly enjoys, being in rehab, nor does anyone, for that matter. But Horny does his best work out on the track. So it was nice to see him involved in some training today, and he'll build nicely towards the pre-season games in the coming weeks. 

“I think we'll be attacking enough at the right times, but being a little bit smarter about where we play, about where we can take the ball at any given moment. We've had a lot of emphasis over the last few years about taking the ball through the corridor, which comes with a lot of risk. Every team, I think, wants to use the corridor to try and get the ball from A to B and to score. But it's not the only way we're going to move the ball this year. And the players know that, and I think they feel like there's a little bit of weight off their shoulders without having to try and force the ball through that part of the ground all the time. They're going to have some other options.” 

Hartlett on new train-on player Ted Clohesy 
“Ted was obviously at a very, very good football club for a few years in Geelong. He played 12 games there, nine of which were the last year in 2025, so any of those players that are on the precipice of playing fair bit of footy for very, very good clubs, I think we'd be silly not to entertain them becoming part of our group. Ted was over here training with Woodville, has made the move over here to South Australia, and we feel like there's an opportunity for him to potentially make our group better. So he gets the next sort of three or four weeks to put his best foot forward ahead of when the club makes those decisions.” 

Hartlett on other the train-on players 
“All the guys have been exceptional in their own little ways. Clearly, we know the talent and smarts of Jaidyn Stephenson, we’ve been really happy with Balyn O'Brien, the young North product is a tough, really reliable defender who can play a bit smaller and a bit taller, and Mitch Zadow from Perth, is showing some real craft in and around the contest. He’s strong, he’s tough, he runs well, so they've all shown glimpses. So that'll be a tough call to make over the coming weeks, but all the guys have held themselves in really good stead for the last four or five weeks.” 

Hartlett on Harrison Ramm 
“Rammy’s a really impressive young kid. You can see the physical state that he's in at the moment. He's 205 centimetres, ripped, he's got a nice tan going on at the moment too, so he's in pretty good nick. And for a young kid, to have been in rehab for the best part of two or three months, to then hit the track and be in that physical shape, just shows the type of character that he is. He's got really good footy IQ, and he's capable of defending well and taking a good intercept mark for us. So if he continues on the right track, there's no doubt he'll be in the frame for round one, and hopefully for his sake, and our sake, a permanent part of what we're doing moving forward.” 

Hartlett on Todd Marshall’s shift to defence 
“I'm really enjoying his development down there. As a player that hasn’t spent much time (in that position), he sees the game really well, he's got great IQ and clearly uses the ball well for a big fella too. So I just made a comment to him the other day saying that I'm loving what he's doing down there. He's getting plenty of support from Luke Webster and Cam Sutcliffe in terms of his development as defender, and he's got great experience around him with Aliir and Esava and these guys as well, that he's got super relationships with, so I think it's really promising signs from Todd.” 

Hartlett on Zak Butters 
“Zak and I have got a great relationship, external to footy. We don't talk about where his head’s are around that sort of stuff. At the end of the day, our job as coaches and as people around the footy club is to make sure that the environment is as suitable as possible for Zak and for every player, for that matter. Zak will make his call in due course. He's certainly doing nothing to suggest that that he's not fully embedded in the program. He's just so competitive, he speaks up in meetings, he's a great leader around the football club, and he wants to do the very best for himself and for our team for this year. So we'll see where things land at the end of that.” 

Hartlett on Connor Rozee as captain 
“I think we've seen Connor's growth as a captain with this football club over the last two or three years, and his performance is exceptional week in, week out. He's a player that the young guys around the football club idolise. He communicates really well, so there'd be absolutely no reason for Connor not to be the captain this year.”