Port Adelaide assistant coach Chad Cornes expects selection pressure to be evident this week, as the side prepares to welcome players back from injury and suspension.
The Power is hoping to break a record on Saturday – a ninth-straight win will etch the side into the history books for the longest unbeaten run since the club entered the AFL.
Cornes spoke with the Adelaide media on Tuesday about which players stood up in Sunday’s win over Richmond, how the injury list is tracking and what he expects from Hawthorn this weekend.
Cornes on Aliir Aliir
“He was great. So important for us. When he's up and about the team really feeds off him. One of the better intercept markers I've seen in my time in footy, I love seeing him when he's up and about like that….he's shown he can not only be a great intercept defender but he can also do a really good lockdown role on the opposition’s best key forward.”
Cornes on Jed McEntee
“I love him. I’ve said it previously but Nathan Bassett when he was coaching the forwards last year always gave Jed big raps, but I didn’t see it but obviously Bass was watching it really closely. But what he does, he's just the ultimate team man. I love coaching him, I love what he brings to our forward line and it's great that he's finally starting to get a bit of recognition from outside sources too.”
Cornes on selection pressure
“Selection pressure is always great especially when your team's playing well. For example, with the forward line this week, if Todd (Marshall) and Charlie (Dixon) are alright, there's going to be some really tough calls that need to be made but that's the sign of a great footy club that's in form and has a reasonably healthy injury list.”
Cornes on Todd Marshall
“I saw him this morning, he was really, really positive. Last week it was more the whiplash, the sore neck, but saw him this morning and he gave me the all-clear in his mind, so he has to get through a couple of training sessions first but he's feeling a lot better than he was last week.
“He's really aggressive with the way he gets at the opposition when the ball hits the deck and sometimes leads with his head which isn’t a great way to tackle so we've already spoken about that a lot and have done some low-level tackling practice since the last concussion and as soon as he gets the all-clear, hopefully today, we’ll ramp that up. So, hopefully by the end of the week he’s using a bit better technique than what he's shown so far this year.”
Cornes on Charlie Dixon’s injury
“It's been a little frustrating. It's been “yep he should be fine” and then by the end of the week, it hasn’t been quite right. I haven’t seen Charlie this morning but from what we're hearing he's a really good chance to play.”
Cornes on Tom Jonas returning from suspension
“He's available, the last game he played was one of his better games for the year but in saying that, the backline performed really, really well on the weekend. Selection's not for a couple of days' time and there will be a big discussion around numerous players, and he'll be one of them so I can't say too much except we'll wait for then.
“(The backline has) done a really good job, even Lachie Jones coming in (to the) backline on the weekend performed really well. Moose (Trent) McKenzie and Aliir have been really holding the group up and performing really well as a group.”
Cornes on Hawthorn this Saturday
“We had the opposition meeting yesterday and they’re playing some really attacking footy. They got us here in Round 2 last year (but we’re) a completely different team now than what we were then but they're playing that similar way…they're really attacking, great run-and-carry through their midfield and have got some really strong targets forward so they're playing a lot better than what their record suggests. They've got probably an unheralded back six or seven. They’ve got some really good solid, players there so we definitely won’t be taking that lightly.”
