PORT ADELAIDE forwards coach Chad Cornes says a knee injury to vice-captain Zak Butters will present an opportunity for others to get more midfield minutes.
Butters has undergone an arthroscopy to tidy up a loose body in his knee and is expected to be sidelined for at least six weeks.
Speaking to media in Adelaide before the side departs for its pre-season hit-out against St Kilda in Melbourne, Cornes said Jackson Mead and Willem Drew would likely get more time in the middle in Butters’ absence.
Cornes also discussed his new favourite players, the return of Sam Powell-Pepper and how he sees Ollie Lord’s future.
Chad Cornes on Zak Butters’ knee injury:
“It's always disappointing to lose any player and Buttsy being one of our best, but it does give the opportunity for someone else to step up. Jackson Mead will come in and play a bit more time on the wing this week, working with Jase Burgoyne on the other wing, (Willem) Drewy will play more minutes than he did last week, so there's no doom and gloom about it. Yes, it hurts you a little bit to lose Buttsy, but it always gives the opportunity for someone else to step up.”
Chad Cornes on how Zak Butters is feeling post his arthroscope on Thursday:
“I haven't spoken to him since the op(eration), but he'll get on with business. He'll be attacking his rehab as best as anyone would or could. He was a little down when he heard the news, but he's a pretty positive kind of guy who wants to get the best out of himself so he'll do everything right in the rehab and he might even surprise us and get back a little earlier.”
Chad Cornes on Esava Ratugolea’s progress following knee surgery:
“He's going really well. He was moving well at training a few days ago. There's a chance he might play some minutes in our internal next week so if that goes well, he’s a possibility for round one. He's recovered really well.”
Chad Cornes on how the side will line up against St Kilda tomorrow:
“Jeremy (Finlayson) will play a bit more time down back, as he did last week. I thought he showed some good signs there. In terms of other changes, it'll be pretty similar to the Crows. I think we'll play 23 in the first half and then have three guys on the bench that might play some minutes in the second half, depending on how some guys get through.
Chad Cornes on whether there has been a tug-of-war between the forwards and defensive coaches for Jeremy Finlayson:
“The beauty about Jez is he can play anywhere, and he's shown he can play anywhere, so (Tyson Goldsack) Goldie was really happy to have him. He can even pinch hit in the ruck and if it doesn't go well down back, we're expecting that it will, and he'll be able to hold up really well for us. He can always come back forward as we know he can do some real damage down there.”
Chad Cornes on Ollie Lord’s pre-season:
“He's had to do a lot of work in the ruck over the preseason with Dante and Ivan not being available. But now, with Ivan back and Dante not too far away, we'd like to settle Lordy forward and get him some continuity there, because I think he's really got some talent and some weapons we could use in the forward line. It's just been, he's had to been used in other places so far. From now on, hopefully he can just settle down forward.”
Chad Cornes on the key takeaways from last week’s performance against Adelaide:
“We've worked really hard on our offence, and it's a bit of a new system compared to the last couple of years. It looked really good in training, but for the first time against a really good opposition we probably didn't execute it the way we would have liked. So, we've learned a lot from that. Obviously, trained it really hard, so we'd like to see a bit of growth in that this week. That was the main takeaway for me.”
Chad Cornes on how Joe Berry and Joe Richards have settled into the forward line:
“I love the two Joes, they’re my favourites already. The way they work, Darcy (Byrne-Jones) has been sort of one out in that role. It's a tough role. It requires a lot of hard work for sometimes not a lot of reward. But these two guys have come in and fitted in beautifully so I’m pretty excited about what they can and might do.”
Chad Cornes on the return of Sam Powell-Pepper following his ACL injury last year:
“He's done everything he can. It was great to have him back out there. He just wants to please and do everything right but he just needs to take the pressure off himself a little bit and then just let it come. But to have three shots on goal, he was involved, so it was a pretty good return for a first up off a knee.”
Chad Cornes on how he feels about the club’s dynamic new-look forward line:
“I'm really excited about it. We've seen some great passages of play, you know, in the preseason, playing against ourselves. So now that the challenge is to do it well against great opposition teams and St Kilda are one of the best defensive teams in the AFL. If we can build on what we showed last week against a strong defensive team, that'll give us some confidence going into the next couple of weeks.
“There was a couple of real highlights. It wasn't all doom and gloom with our offense. The one that really stood out – Miles (Bergman) off the half bank flight got involved and went long to Darcy (into an) open goal square. That's what we've seen a lot during the preseason so there were three or four passages like that which are really good. Now it's about doing it more regularly.”
Chad Cornes on whether he thinks players being concussed after being pushed in the back in marking contests is an issue:
“We have umpires out regularly, and they're always really open with questions that we have for them. That's not one that we've raised with them just yet, but if it continues, obviously we'll be made aware of it. The AFL sends emails to all the coaches about things the umpires are looking at so if it's a trend, I'm sure we'll be really aware of it.”
