KEN Hinkley is backing his playbook to deliver against Essendon at Adelaide Oval on Friday, six days after a dominant performance against Melbourne did not deliver victory.
"We have to play our way," Hinkley said on the eve of the Gather Round clash that puts Port Adelaide on the main stage with Friday Night Football.
"It is pretty clear to us the way we play. We have a really good identity about the way we play our football.
"To execute that for four quarters, if possible, so we come away with a win," added Hinkley of the theme put in place at Alberton this week after the seven-point loss to Melbourne.
"We know how we play our best."
The match will mark the return of young forward Mitch Georgiades for his 50th AFL match - and first since the round 2 clash with Collingwood last season.
Port Adelaide will name its match 23 on Thursday evening with one forced change in the loss of former captain Ollie Wines, who suffered a hamstring strain during the seven-point loss to Melbourne at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night. The gain to the Port Adelaide midfield is the expected return of Jason Horne-Francis from his hamstring issues.
"We will make a couple of adjustments," Hinkley forecast.
"Mitch Georgiades will play. It is a great story for us as a football club after his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). We are pretty excited to see Mitch out there playing."
NEW MITCH
GEORGIADES will take on a new role, moving away from the goalfront to working at half-forward.
"Mitch has worked in a different style; he has been the goalsquare, lead-up forward whereas now he is growing his game to be a true half-forward flanker," Hinkley said.
"Mitch has played pretty well for the past two to three weeks. There is never the perfect time (for his recall), but we are excited by what he is going to bring to our team. It is hard work for the opposition to stop him; he is a great athlete, not just in the air but on the ground too.
"We are really hopefully he adds to our speed on the ground.
"Mitch has used his time (off the field) to focus on certain areas of his game that will help him be more effective as an AFL player. He has a really significant knee injury that took time to overcome after surgery. We have enjoyed the way he has trained during the pre-season."
SOLO SOLDO
IVAN Soldo will continue as Port Adelaide's lone specialist ruck with Hinkley not calling up fellow new recruit Jordon Sweet to work against the Essendon ruck battery.
"We will stick with the one ruck," Hinkley declared at Alberton on Thursday morning. "And play the way we have been playing (with support ruck options in players such as Jeremy Finlayson)."
SCORE REVIEW
AFTER leaving Adelaide Oval on Saturday night knowing its own failings had cost victory, Port Adelaide's review and preparation has emphasised how much is still being done well.
"There were a lot of positives to come out from what we did really, really well," Hinkley said. "We look for RFIs, room for improvement. We have looked at a few of them. Melbourne to their credit played a really good game and executed in front of goal - ultimately that was the most significant statistic in the game. They kicked goals."
Hinkley felt the Port Adelaide defence was solid.
"It is pretty hard to stop a team if they are going to kick goals as Melbourne did," Hinkley said. "We put them in really good spots - they were taking shots from places that were less likely than likely to be goals. But they turned them into goals."
SCORING TONE
PORT ADELAIDE did score more goals (13) than behinds (11) last week but the focus remains its conversion.
"We have spent a lot of time on our goalkicking," Hinkley said. "Sometimes, it takes a little while to transfer. There will be games we will kick really well, I am sure. We can't spend any more time on it."
ESSENDON EDGE
AFTER two tight battles with Essendon last season for two wins by four and five points, Hinkley does not expect anything but another epic contest against a team that has declared it has an "edge".
"We expect Essendon to play in the same fashion they have done in the past couple of years," Hinkley said. "They will be a real challenge. They have been for every team they have played this year. They have a high-quality side that we rate.
"Last year we played them in two games that were really close games."
WINES RETURN
WINES trained at Alberton Oval on Thursday with confidence in the forecast of spending just one week on the sidelines.
"I am confident it is only one week," Hinkley said. "He played the second half of the game (against Melbourne) with the issue. We have some evidence through scans that we have to be cautious off a six-day break and we go into another quick turnaround next week.
"We are optimistic Ollie will be fine. If this game was on Sunday, he would be playing."
GATHER ROUND
GEELONG coach Chris Scott has taken issue with Gather Round delivering an extra home game for Port Adelaide by calling on the AFL to fixture a derby in future festival rounds.
"MCG has the grand final each year," Hinkley responded to highlight an advantage offered to the Victorian-based teams.
"Gather Round is in the right spot. If anyone can do it better than last year, it will be Adelaide this year. We are doing it pretty good already.
"It is going to be hard to do this better than Adelaide."
