Power General Manager – Football Operations Peter Rohde takes us through the side exclusively at PortAdelaideFC.com.au…
Paul Stewart comes in for his AFL debut. He’s a flexible defender who can play on tall or small players and he can really run. We picked him at the end of 2006 with our second pick at No. 23 and is a local boy from Woodville-West Torrens. He’s had an excellent pre-season and is in the mould of Matthew Bishop.
Dean Brogan proved his fitness in the last week and is ready to go. Troy Chaplin had the medical clearance to play but he needs some training and match simulation time before he plays.
We’ve picked Matt Thomas. He’s had two very competitive pre-season games and we think he can add physicality to our team, that’s why he’s in there.
The other player who wasn’t part of our grand final side last year is Alipate Carlile, who is our straight swap for Darryl Wakelin and will benefit from his ten games of experience last year including a final.
That makes the changes from our last game last year... IN: Carlile, Stewart, Thomas, OUT: Chaplin, Symes, Wakelin.
Hopefully we can get the season off to the best of starts. Hope you can make it to the game.
Speak to you next week.
The Power’s 22 to face Geelong is as follows…
B: Michael Pettigrew, Alipate Carlile, Jacob Surjan
HB: Peter Burgoyne, Toby Thurstans, Dom Cassisi
C: Travis Boak, Chad Cornes, Kane Cornes
HF: David Rodan, Justin Westhoff, Danyle Pearce
F: Daniel Motlop, Warren Tredrea, Brett Ebert
Foll: Brendon Lade, Steven Salopek, Shaun Burgoyne
Interchange: Dean Brogan, Tom Logan, Matt Thomas, Paul Stewart
Emergencies: Greg Bentley, Nick Lower, Fabian Deluca
