CHARLIE Dixon is back to lead Port Adelaide's attack in Friday Night Football against fellow top-eight aspirant Western Bulldogs in Melbourne. But the defence will not regain captain Tom Jonas - and will lose Ryan Burton - as form rather than reputation dictates selection at Alberton.

Dixon and former captain Travis Boak both will resume from injury.

Jonas and Burton both will miss while the Port Adelaide match committee favours young tyros such as Lachie Jones and Miles Bergman, seeks more field play for last week's tactical substitute Josh Sinn and manages minutes for some players before entering the bye after consecutive six-day breaks between matches against Richmond, Hawthorn, the Western Bulldogs and Geelong.

Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley on Thursday detailed a multi-dimensional theme with his selection that will be released this evening.

"Charlie is playing," declared Hinkley to end the month-long wait for Dixon to overcome a leg-muscle injury. "And so is Travis (ribs) which is good news for us.

"Clearly, both boys are really important to us - structurally and culturally. 

"Charlie trains pretty hard (to maintain his fitness). He keeps himself in great shape, so (a month on the sidelines) is not going to be a big issue for him. His bigger challenge will be around contest."

Jonas will miss the second consecutive week. Burton falls out after conceding five goals in a battle with his former Hawthorn team-mate Luke Breust at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

"We are in good form, we have quality players coming into the side and we have been consistent that we base selection on performance," Hinkley said.

"Ryan, by his own admission, has been a little bit down. We have mixed him a bit by playing him forward and back. 

"Tom Jonas played very well last week in the SANFL. But the team is in pretty good shape and we have people we feel need to come back immediately. Our back line has been our strongest-performing area with some emerging young players who have been doing incredibly good jobs - Jones, Kane Farrell, (All-Australian contending) Dan Houston, Miles Bergman. They are keeping experienced players out.

"Tom is our captain. He has been a great player for our football club for a long time ... just because he misses a week or two does not send any other message than you need to play well. It is never about Tom - he always does the right thing by his football club. That is what we love about Tom Jonas.

"We have a couple of games before the bye ... and you have to make decisions around minutes you put into players. That is factored into our selection this week. We want good AFL minutes in Josh Sinn."

OPPONENT: Port Adelaide will play its 37th AFL match against the Western Bulldogs, less than two months after the 14-point win at Adelaide Oval in round five. Overall, Port Adelaide has a 20-16 win-loss count against the Victorian club with four wins in the past six starts since August 2020.

RUCK DUEL: Scott Lycett resumes his battle with Western Bulldogs ruckman Tim English with their last encounter in April a spur for the Port Adelaide lead ruckman.

"Scott is in great shape for this week," said Hinkley who subbed Lycett from the last 40 minutes of the 55-point win against Hawthorn. "We are very much aware that English has been in great form and Scott has a big job. We needed to make sure Scott had his best chance. Scott, when he is fresh is when we get the best from Scott.

"Scott knows his role for us is really important. He knows what he needs to do for our midfield. And we are aware of the opposition's best players - and English has been as good as anyone for them. He is like an extra midfielder, in some ways. He can cover the ground well. He is not the traditional ruckman - he can do all sorts of things.

"We are confident in Scott after he has handled Gawn, Grundy, Nankervis in recent weeks."

MIDFIELD: Port Adelaide with Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines and young guns Zak Butters, Connor Rozee and Jason Horne-Francis against Marcus Bontempelli, Tom Liberatore, Jack Macrae and Bailey Smith ... plus others.

"They are two pretty good midfields," says Hinkley. "The Western Bulldogs have some outstanding players in their midfield and we have some emerging young players plus some experienced players in there. We feel we are capable of going against the Bulldogs. And I am sure they think the same of us."

FREE KICKS: Port Adelaide remains in negative territory with a -31 differential this season. The Western Bulldogs are most-favoured with free kicks with a +94 differential.

"Everyone needs to be wary with tackling skills currently with the dangers that come with dangerous tackling," Hinkley said. "We are very mindful of that."

JOSH SINN: Riley Bonner will most probably take the tactical substitute role from Sinn who is in line for this third AFL game after a horror start with injury.

"He has not had an opportunity (by injury) and we have given Josh a great chance this year," Hinkley said. "Our conditioning team and medical staff have done a great job to get Josh to a spot where we think he has a clear run at it. He makes us potentially a much, much better team. He has power and speed. We like to have speed on the floor. But Josh has a long way to go."

VENUE: Port Adelaide has another streak to continue - an eight-game winning run at the enclosed stadium in Melbourne's Docklands stretching back to March 21, 2021. In those eight matches, Port Adelaide has worked the faster conditions of the indoor arena to score between 74-117 points. And it has defended solidly to allow scores of between 61-76 points.

"We play good football there," Hinkley said. "But this year we have played good football from round three - and consistently. We have won in Sydney, in Tasmania and we have won in Melbourne."

TENABLE: What was dubbed by external critics as "untenable" at 1-2 after round three is now on the verge of ten wins in a row.

"I don't buy into external opinions," Hinkley said. "We are not a team that will say, 'Told you so'. We are not going to act like that."

The match begins at 7.20pm with national free-to-air coverage on the Seven television network along with the live telecast on Fox Footy.