PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley says his midfield will give Hawthorn's Tom Mitchell extra attention when the sides meet in Launceston on Saturday but he has conceded it is almost impossible to stop the ball magnet.
Mitchell has been in irresistible form this season, passing 40 possessions on five occasions and having a massive 54 in Round 1 against Collingwood.
He had 28 touches, seven marks and ten tackles against West Coast last weekend, with Hinkley watching from the stands in Melbourne.
“We’ve talked about the challenge of trying to restrict a player like Tom and (midfield coach) Michael (Voss)’s conversation is that we can probably bring him back from 40 (touches) to 30 but we’re not going to bring him back from 40 to 20,” Hinkley said on Adelaide radio show Sportsday SA.
“He’s that type of player, he just finds the ball and so you’ve got to consider your options and what you’re going to do.
“Tom Mitchell is such a good player.. look he’ll get some attention, it’s just a matter of how tightly we put on that attention.”
Hinkley said he was impressed with what he saw of the Hawks despite them going down by 15 points to the ladder leading Eagles.
“With a little bit of luck they probably could have won that game so we understand the size of the challenge that we’ve got against us,” Hinkley said.
“Combine that with their form down in Tasmania, they’re a significantly tougher challenge in Tassie, and we know that if we are not at our 100% best then we’ll be in a bit of trouble.”
“Their midfield is obviously very elite when you consider the likes of Mitchell, O’Meara, Shiels amongst there and they’re even playing Jars (Jarman Impey) through there and Breust at times and Roughy (Jarryd Roughead) at times and then they’ve got Smith on the wing and Henderson so they’re a pretty good side all over the park.
“If you take your eye off them in one area they’ll probably get you in another so we’ve just got to make sure we’re pretty solid all the way.”
The Power is sitting just outside the top eight on percentage at 6-3 and has just had a bye after returning from China for its game in Shanghai.
It means the Port Adelaide side is rested ahead of the trip to Tasmania, but it will have to endure 13 more weeks without any time off ahead of finals.
Hinkley, though, was confident his side would cope.
“We know that we’ve got an extended period to play before we get our next break and hopefully we play finals before we get our next break,” he said.
“Last year we gave the boys a couple of opportunities where we gave the boys a couple of three-day breaks.
“You sacrifice a training session here or there to make sure that you get them physically fresh and mentally fresh.
“We did it last year without it causing any harm… and we think we managed the back end of the season pretty well.”
The Power mentor also provided an update on defender Matthew Broadbent who has not played since Round 19 last year as he recovers from an ankle issue which required surgery in February.
“We’re really positive about where he’s at because he had that surgery in February and the diagnosis there was to make sure he went 12 weeks without getting going again and we’ve followed it to the letter because he’s had some significant issues going through that,” Hinkley said.
“He’s back running just now and we’re just being a bit mindful and cautious with his build-up.
“Everything going well we could probably expect to see
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