THE excitement surrounding Port Adelaide’s AFL side is rubbing off on its SANFL team, with plenty of positivity about 2019 within the playing group.

Coach Matthew Lokan is backing a renewed Magpies outfit to return to finals action after a disappointing 2018 campaign.

He told 800 people gathered at Port Adelaide’s Hall of Fame and Season Launch about his confidence that his side would be back challenging for the flag this season.

“I’m really excited about the young group of players that we’ve got,” he said during the on-stage interview.

“Our SANFL contracted guys have been outstanding over summer.

“A little bit of a tweak in the SANFL rules has allowed us to get some guys into our footy club who I think will really help us in 2019.

“We’ve had some guys that have been able to get full pre-seasons under their belt and we’re just looking forward to seeing what they can do during the season.”

Among those he highlighted among the new faces were leadership player Cam Sutcliffe, who has played more than 100 AFL games with Fremantle, North Adelaide recruit Matt Appleton who is a former reserves Magarey Medallist and has played impressive league football as recently as last season and youngsters Mitch Mead and Adam Mahney, who have lengthy family histories with the club.

Lokan, himself a rugged half back who played with Port Adelaide in the SANFL and Collingwood in the AFL said he expected his side to play in a similar fashion.

“I think that’s the only way Port Adelaide plays,” he said.

“The game has changed a lot since a long time ago when I played but we’ll adopt a lot of things that the AFL side are trying to do – that faster football and taking the game on.”

Port Adelaide no longer has a reserves outfit to help boost Lokan’s league side as part of the new SANFL rules.

But given the quality of recruitment for SANFL contracted players and the young talent on offer in the AFL squad, Lokan is targeting a return to finals football in 2019.

“There’s no other way - Port Adelaide is about winning premierships and we were disappointing last year and we need to turn that around,” he said.

“There were a number of reasons why we weren’t able to achieve that last year but we’re confident going into this season that we’ll be able to produce football that wins finals.”