Multiple clubs target retired Port champion for off-field role

Travis Boak is in demand ahead of the 2026 season

Travis Boak after Port Adelaide's win over Gold Coast in round 24, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos

RETIRED Port Adelaide champion Travis Boak is being pursued by at least three clubs for a range of football department roles in 2026.

Greater Western Sydney is understood to have met with the 37-year-old this week to gauge his interest in joining the Giants next year.

Collingwood will also meet with the three-time All-Australian to discuss a role in the football department at the AIA Centre.

Boak announced his retirement after 387 games earlier this month and is weighing up whether to remain involved in the game and where he wants to live.

Travis Boak after Port Adelaide's win over Gold Coast in round 24, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos

Clubs have been exploring leadership and culture roles with the former Port Adelaide skipper, similar to the job Joel Selwood performed at Melbourne Storm after calling time on his decorated career at Geelong. Former St Kilda captain Jarryn Geary is currently player leadership coach at the Western Bulldogs.

Assistant and development coaching positions have also been floated by clubs who want to sign the consummate professional.

Sydney is believed to have expressed interest in Boak earlier this year, as the Swans look to beef up its coaching panel around Dean Cox.

Former Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin is being pursued by both New South Wales clubs, who are armed with more financial flexibility, along with every other club, with the soft cap to rise by $750,000 in 2026 and a further $350,000 in 2027.

The Swans were one coach short in 2025 after John Longmire's decision last November and have been exploring coaching options across the country ahead of the start of pre-season.

GWS, like their crosstown rivals, have struggled to compete with rivals to offer attractive deals to coaches, due to the cost of living differences with other states, but are currently looking to add to Adam Kingsley and Jason McCartney's department.

Clubs had been campaigning publicly, and privately, for the AFL to increase the soft cap to pre-pandemic levels and will now have more money to beef up the off-field team.

Port Adelaide is undergoing significant leadership change at Alberton, with Josh Carr taking over from Ken Hinkley, Chris Davies moving to Carlton as GM and Boak retiring.

Boak has lived in South Australia since the Power selected him out of the Geelong Falcons with pick No.5 in the 2006 AFL Draft.

The Torquay product was targeted by clubs across his 19-season career. Now they are asking the question again, just for a different reason.

Click here to read article