PORT ADELAIDE senior assistant coach Michael Voss is confident his brigade of young stars has the mental strength and physical talent to thrive in a baptism of fire of sorts against expected premiership contender Melbourne.
The Power takes four AFL debutants into its season opener against the Demons at the MCG on Saturday among a host of changes to its 2018 line-up.
First round draftees Xavier Duursma, Zak Butters and Connor Rozee will debut on the big stage along with third-year midfielder Willem Drew.
During a press conference on Friday, Voss admitted there was a chance they could be overawed by the occasion.
But he backed the youngsters to perform.
“There’s always a chance of that,” Voss said.
“You could ask any player in the AFL and they’re always a risk of that but we don’t form a view on one particular day – we form a view over the whole pre-season.
“The mental aptitude to be able to play the game is obviously a critical factor and they handle that really well, if anything we think they’ll thrive.
“They can expect an increase in intensity but we’ve seen enough from them over the pre-season to be fairly well educated that they’ll handle it pretty well.”
The Power showed its willingness to play faster, more attacking football during the pre-season as part of some changes to its 2018 game plan.
Voss said having eleven different players in Saturday’s side to the team which took the field in Round 23, 2018 is another sign of the club’s want to be better in 2019.
“We promised a different look about us in 2019 and that just goes some way to how committed we are to ensure it happens; not just in the way we want to play but the personnel we have,” he explained.
“What we’ve tried to do is play somewhat different to how we played last year. I think what Port fans will have seen is quicker ball movement, hopefully we’re a bit more aggressive in the way we set up the field and we need to be strong in the contest.
“Port fans have probably seen little bits of that, there’s some evidence in what we’ve put out over the JLT series but we want that evidence to be overwhelming and to do that we have to play well when it counts.”
The former Brisbane skipper said there was some excitement about Round 1 after such a big build up.
He said he expected the intensity to go up a level, describing it as the “grand final of the home and away season”.
And he said there would be no better test for his side than hitting the MCG to take on the Demons, who he said he rated “very highly”.
“They played a really strong brand of footy,” Voss said.
“Clearly, they bring a real contested element to the game that’s going to test us – we have to match them in that part of the game.
“They’ve certainly been talked about as a top-four side so playing round 1 against Melbourne, quality opposition, it’s a really big task for us.
“We’re quite happy to step into that unknown now because we go in with an element of certainty because we’ve prepared really well, the players have done everything right, they’ve completed everything we’ve asked of them. They should go in with real confidence and belief that we can get the job done.”
