PORT ADELAIDE will play its fifth AFL final in four years - and first on the road since 2014 - when facing Brisbane in the double-chance qualifying final at the Gabba on Saturday night.

The experiences, both sweet and bitter, from the four recent finals at Adelaide Oval in 2020 and 2021 will be critical in guiding Port Adelaide through the double challenge of rising to finals intensity and not stalling where every visiting team has lost this season.

Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley expects his team to enter the Gabba leaning on every invaluable lesson - and even the harsh reminders - taken from recent qualifying and preliminary finals at Adelaide Oval.

"We've been there and done that. And so has Brisbane," Hinkley said. "We are both quite experienced teams in finals. And we have both had challenges at the back end of finals," added Hinkley of Brisbane also longing to get past the preliminary final.

"We have experience. There is no doubt we have experience. We have people who have grown in their games. That puts us in a better position. We will do our absolute best to show we are better (than in 2020 and 2021). But there is no guarantee.

"Both teams get to use their experience (from recent major rounds). We will see who makes the most of those experiences.

"The contest always goes up in finals. You just have to do everything right in finals. 

"Finals are a combative game. The best teams get there. The stakes go up. This is what we play football for."

Port Adelaide beat Brisbane in the teams' only meeting this year - the season-opener at Adelaide Oval where the Power’s 54-point win marked the end of a five-game sequence favouring the Lions.

Missing from that line-up are forwards Charlie Dixon, Mitch Georgiades, Orazio Fantasia and Geelong recruit Francis Evans, who was the tactical substitute. Gained is versatile forward Jeremy Finlayson.

At selection, Port Adelaide has regained ruckman Scott Lycett, key forward Todd Marshall (four goals in the season opener) and key defender Trent McKenzie.

Former captain Travis Boak will be the tactical substitute.

"Trav can influence a game like this when he comes onto the ground," said Hinkley of Boak who is to play his 14th AFL final since his first in 2007.

"Getting a full game into Travis in our last home-and-away game (against Richmond at Adelaide Oval) was good - and pretty good timing."

Lycett resumes from a knee injury after two games in the SANFL. 

"They have been a bonus getting those two games into Scott; that has been really important," Hinkley said. "He is in very good shape. We are optimistic as to what Scott means to us when he is in good form."

McKenzie also returns from a knee injury, his latest suffered during the loss to Geelong at Kardinia Park in round 21. His removal from the injury list comes as captain Tom Jonas awaits scans on a "significant" calf injury suffered in the last two minutes of training on Thursday.

"It is amazing the timing considering what happened to Tom," Hinkley said. "Trent is a significant in for us given Tom would not have played. Getting Trent back was pretty important."

Marshall resumes after resting in round 24 to ease a hip complaint he has carried for many weeks.

"Todd is certainly in a fair bit better shape for having the last game off and then the bye," Hinkley said. "He has had a pretty tough year with managing his body through the season, but he is now in as good a shape as he has been."

AT THE GABBA: Port Adelaide returns to the Gabba for the first time since March 19, 2022 when injuries factored into the 11-point loss. 

This will be Port Adelaide's third AFL final at the Gabba after the preliminary final in 2002 and qualifying final in 2001. 

The most-recent win at the Gabba - where Port Adelaide has a 9-2-13 win-draw-loss record - was by 16 points against Collingwood in 2020. The last win against Brisbane at the Gabba was in late April 2017.

"We have had seven games away this year that we have won," Hinkley said. "Brisbane's (unbeaten) record (at the Gabba) does not mean much when the game starts. It will be about which team is more composed and calmer at the start.

"We don't feel like an underdog. We qualified equal second with Brisbane. We won 17 games this year. That is quite an effort by any team. We go the Gabba full of confidence that we are capable of challenging any team."

LAST TIME (now 26 weeks ago): "Not much (is left to take from that game)," says Hinkley. "We won. But when you look back, both sides were at different stages. We were coming off an average couple of pre-season games in Perth. Brisbane was playing really well .. 

"I do have great admiration for what Brisbane are and how (coach) Chris Fagan leads their team. They are brutally tough. We will need to play four quarters to win."

MOMENTUM: "It will be a game of four quarters - and you will have to play the whole game," Hinkley said. "There will be moments when one side is on top; let's hope it is not early in the game when Brisbane has its turn. 

"I expect the game will be a tough, hard game that will probably go right to the wire."

DEFENCE - BY TEAM OR INDIVIDUALS: "Your defensive team effort is critically important," Hinkley said. "We saw Collingwood's team defence hold up (in the earlier qualifying final on Thursday night) against a team with 30 more forward entries. It is not just about individual (match-ups).

"We know if we defend poorly we will not win.

"We are a high-scoring team. We defend honestly. We want to play front-half footy. And when the ball gets through we know we have to defend as a team."

OPPENHEIMER: Hinkley has not seen the newly released bio-drama film on the life of physicist Robert Oppenheimer and his team of scientists who during World War II developed the atom bomb in the US. The movie emphasises success by team ethos - a theme Port Adelaide is carrying into the finals series.  

"Every club has some type of theme - and this is not a significant part of focus on this week's game," Hinkley said. "The key part from the film, as Ollie Wines explained so well, is how people came together over a long period of time to work really hard on one single project - just as we have to get an outcome. We have been at this task for a long period of time, four to five years. 

"I have not seen the movie and it is not that big a theme for us."

CHARLIE DIXON: On his return from a foot injury, says Hinkley, "he is getting there ... getting there."

The match will begin at 6:55pm ACST / 7:25pm AEST on Saturday.