PORT ADELAIDE senior coach Ken Hinkley understands the importance of Saturday’s clash with Sydney, and has rewarded the players who defeated Essendon by 59 point on the road last weekend.
Port has gone with an unchanged line-up against the Swans in Round 21, and Hinkley is backing the same side to get the four points on Saturday at Adelaide Oval.
That means Power co-captain Ollie Wines is set to return to football - after breaking his thumb against Brisbane a month ago - through the SANFL.
“The critical part is we played really well as a team last week,” Hinkley said at his weekly press conference at Adelaide Oval.
“Ollie is a pretty important part of our team no doubt, but when the team played as well as it did, we select the boys did the job last week.
“Ollie knows that. Ollie has been a part of that in the past. He understands that.
“But as I said, we are respectful of the team and the way we played last week, and the balance of the team was right.”
Port came under some scrutiny from the media for playing a taller side against the Bombers, and Hinkley has again backed in the talls to win tomorrow’s clash with the Swans despite forecast wet conditions.
“It’s quite amazing is it, we were too tall last week because we were inside, this week we are too tall because it’s outside and it’s wet,” he said.
“We are picking the team that gives us the best chance to win, and that’s what we’ve done again this week.
“We are lucky that our talls are quite mobile talls. You see Todd (Marshall) and Charlie (Dixon) play, even Peter Ladhams - they’re not just dry track days that they can stand there and mark the ball. They actually get after the ball really well on the ground.”
The senior coach knows the quality of Sydney - who have played in the past nine finals campaigns - and says despite their ladder position this year, they will come with an appetite to win.
“You only need to look at their most recent form,” Hinkley said.
“We played the Giants. They played the Giants. We lost by one. They lost by two. We understand what’s coming. We understand what John (Longmire) and his team will be like.
“They’ve always been strong. They’ve always been like that since I can remember the Sydney Swans.
“We respect that football club as much as any other football club in the competition I reckon, because of the way they play. We know what they are going to bring.”
The Power hosts the Swans at Adelaide Oval on Saturday afternoon in a crucial Round 21 clash, with the game commencing at 1.40pm ACST.