PORT ADELAIDE last week celebrated the success of its big forwards, Todd Marshall and Jeremy Finlayson each kicking five goals.

This week, it will be about the "team score" as Port Adelaide expects goals to be hard earned against St Kilda in the tropics of north Queensland on Saturday night.

In 13 AFL home-and-away games at Cazaly's Stadium, only one club - the Western Bulldogs in 2016 and 2017, each time against Gold Coast - has broken the watershed 100-point barrier. The average score at Cairns has been 68 points.

"Footy is week-by-week; last week (the three-man tandem with Georgiades, Finlayson and Marshall) looked okay. The trick is to be consistent - and not rely on one or two people," Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley said at Alberton on Thursday.

"The team needs to score somewhere around 80 points to win this game of football (against St Kilda). How the team does that is the secret more so than (counting the goals) of the two or three people at the front (of the Port Adelaide attack)."

Port Adelaide's nine-goal second half against Carlton and 84-point win against West Coast at Adelaide Oval on Saturday gives Hinkley a six-quarter body of work "that gives us some confidence to say we are heading in the right direction".

"We understand the challenge we have this week (against the fifth-ranked St Kilda)," Hinkley said. "If we have turned a corner, it won't count for much on Saturday night (unless there is a continuation of that form).

"St Kilda has confidence as a team (from five wins this season). They are working well together - and, ultimately, that is what the good teams in the AFL do; they work really strongly together - they don't rely on one or two pieces; they rely on the whole team.

"That has been our model in the past two year, but we have not been quite there this season. We know the challenge of St Kilda is the whole team - and we have to be up for the battle."

Port Adelaide has won the past two matches against St Kilda, by 13 and 54 points at the Docklands in west Melbourne and at Adelaide Oval respectively. The record in the past 11 games heavily favours Port Adelaide 10-1.

The striking difference in the line-ups from the past 11 games is Port Adelaide working a novice ruckman, Sam Hayes, in his third AFL match against the imposing pairing of Rowan Marshall and former Port Adelaide ruckman Patrick Ryder.

"It is a great test for Sam," said Hinkley of Hayes who has stepped into the AFL to cover the long-term loss of Scott Lycett (shoulder). "As an emerging young ruck in the AFL, you have to take on the big challenges - and there is no bigger challenge probably than Ryder and Marshall. We know how good they both can be. It is a big job for Sam."

The midfield mix around Hayes will continue to see more minutes invested in Port Adelaide's young crew, in particular Peter Badcoe VC Medallist Connor Rozee who in the past fortnight has answered his critics with his work in the engine room.

"The team has not been absolutely flying and we have needed to use Connor in different spots rather than our preferred spot," Hinkley said of Rozee's work as a forward while Robbie Gray was on the injury list. "In the past couple of weeks we have been able to get him around the ball and Connor has added to us as a team.

"We are optimistic - as we always have been - around the younger group of midfielders we have coming through.

"Getting your team back obviously helps you play people where you would like to play them. But then getting your team into form also helps."

Port Adelaide plays at Cazaly's Stadium for the first time for AFL premiership points with conditions - 29C and a medium chance of showers in the morning at Cairns - to test all.

"We (Hinkley and midfield assistant coaches Brett Montomery and Luke Kelly) do have good experience of being up there and been through games two or three times," Hinkley said. "Reality is, they are not normally high-scoring games up there in Cairns, about a 70-point score. So it is going to be a genuinely contested style of football - and St Kilda is in good form. So we do know what to expect."

Selection will be confirmed on Thursday evening, after Port Adelaide leaves on Thursday afternoon with a 26-man squad that makes a two-leg journey to Cairns with an overnight stay in Sydney.

Wingman Xavier Duursma is back on the selection whiteboard, but midfielder-defender Miles Bergman remains ill after being a late withdrawal from the team that beat West Coast on Saturday.

"We have the same people who were available last week," Hinkley said before training at Alberton Thursday. "We will take 26 based on the fact it is a bit further away and we can't get (replacements) there in a quick trip. We will take a few extras just to be sure.

"It is an unusual flight plan, but it is a plan we can cope with."

Hinkley is optimistic specialist forward Robbie Gray (jarred knee) and defenders Aliir Aliir (ankle) and captain Tom Jonas have overcome the sore spots they took out of the weekend.

"It is round seven, everyone is a bit banged at times but Tom is fine, he is pretty strong," Hinkley said.

Port Adelaide's win against West Coast - that snapped a six-game losing streak - reaffirmed to the playing group how it must approach its football. But Hinkley notes his squad was never drained of spirit during the 0-5 start to the home-and-away series.

"One thing I have been most pleased about is the mood of the group - to keep turning things around - was done really well," Hinkley said. "We've spent a lot of time (in the past three years in the 'connection' space) making sure the group realise the value of the person is really significant, not just by winning or losing.

"We get that we are in the winning and losing business, but we make sure people feel valuable (rather than be judged solely on results)."

On the injury front, there is encouraging news on the progress of All-Australian key forward Charlie Dixon and fellow forward Orazio Fantasia - and a wait-and-see approach to defender Trent McKenzie after knee surgery.

"I am optimistic - and that has not always been the case - on Dixon and Fantasia," Hinkley said. "They are moving along quickly; there are some really promising signs. Whether that is two or three weeks ... but it is getting closer.

"Trent is three weeks into surgery and is probably another three-four weeks away. They are all coming ..."