PORT ADELAIDE will see the return of a favourite son when it takes on South Adelaide this week at Alberton Oval, with John Butcher set to play.
Butcher, who kicked 41 goals in 31 games at AFL level for Port Adelaide, has been training with the club in recent weeks and will now join the group as a contracted player.
The 30-year-old also played 69 SANFL games for 118 goals for the club between 2010 and 2016, and most recently played with Central District in 2020, booting 21 goals in 10 games.
Coach Matthew Lokan said Butcher has been great to have around the team and has been a lift for morale.
“John Butcher is going to play this week, he's been training with us for a while and it's going to be really good for the morale of the group to have someone like him come back and play for us,” he said.
“He's obviously had time with the AFL team, but to be able to come back and be a contracted player is going to be exciting for us.
“We're hoping that he plays with us going forward. Obviously worry about this year first, but he's planning to play on next year for us and be a part of that contracted group.
“He's looked really good at training and he's a really good mark and we hope that he gives us a really good focal point in the front half of the ground.”
Jarrod Lienert will travel to Victoria as the emergency ruling him out due to the need to isolate for 48 hours upon his return to Adelaide, while Oliver Cheesman and Tyson Goldsack return and Tom Clurey returns to the Magpies after he was omitted from the AFL side.
Port Adelaide needs to defeat both the Panthers and undefeated Glenelg in its final game in a fortnight if it is to have a chance of playing finals, and Lokan is hoping for more consistency across four quarters this week.
“The message has been similar to what it's been the last few weeks, we need to be able to play more consistently for the whole four quarters and unfortunately, over the past month or so we haven't been able to do that,” he said.
“We saw last weekend our best against Sturt was good enough, but we weren't able to do it for long enough.
“We don't like to start the way that we did, and we know that if we give a team a nine goal to three start, it's hard to come back from.
“We need to start well. It's been a real focus for us during the week and we're looking forward to the challenge.”
Port Adelaide’s clash with South Adelaide gets underway at 2.05pm on Saturday at Alberton.
