PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley held a press conference on Tuesday ahead of his side’s season opener against Melbourne on Saturday.

The Power boss discussed Paddy Ryder’s fitness to play after he suffered a depressed cheekbone in JLT2 and the potential the ruckman would wear a helmet in the game against the Demons.

Hinkley also talked about the sense of excitement around the club with six players to make their club debuts and four to feature in the AFL for the first time.

And he touched on what he had learned in the off-season and brought into the new campaign.

Here are the best bits:

Ken Hinkley on Paddy Ryder’s chances of facing Melbourne on Saturday:

“He’s 100 per-cent playing. Obviously, he’s got to get through the rest of the week… but we expect he’ll play. He’s got a helmet on his head which is a bit unusual and he said ‘I’ve got some peripheral vision which is causing some (issues)’ but it’s the first time he’s put it on, it’s a precaution, it’s just for Paddy to feel safe in and right now he’s playing. He will (wear it in the game) unless we get to Saturday and he doesn’t want to, because as I said it’s more about Paddy feeling like it gives him a bit of protection.”

Ken Hinkley on playing four AFL debutants, six new players and eleven players who didn’t feature in the Power’s last game of 2018 against the Demons:

"It makes it hard for Melbourne to predict what we're going to do, because we don't know what we're going to do. It’s incredibly exciting, there’s no doubt about that.”

Ken Hinkley on his confidence in Connor Rozee, Zak Butters, Xavier Duursma and Willem Drew to perform at AFL level:

“They’re young people and they’re usually pretty bullet proof, they have a lot of confidence in themselves, they’ve had a pre-season where they’ve played and trained and done everything amongst AFL players, we’ve seen their form in the JLT against the next best thing – that’s opposition – and they’ve done really well so we’re really comfortable that they’re ready to go. ‘Drewy’ is slightly different — he’s a more mature player — but the three younger boys are high picks, fantastic, and ‘Parks’, (recruiting manager) Geoff Parker and (list manager) Jason Cripps have made some changes to our team for us which is really exciting. I’ve always said the first-round picks now, more often than not, they almost always play. If they’re going OK and they’re injury-free and they’ve had a good run they’re more often than not going to get into the team.”

Ken Hinkley on why the young players were selected:

“They’re not picked because they’re young, they’re not picked because they’re high draft picks, they’re picked because they can play good football already and we think they can certainly have an impact straight away. And what a great place to play your first game – at the MCG.”

Ken Hinkley on how long the guernsey presentation will take before Saturday’s game:

“I think we’re going to start about eight thirty Saturday morning and work our way through it. As a club we’ve been pretty prepared to play our young players as soon as they’re ready and we back them in, and that also gives them great confidence that they can go on and have great careers.”

Ken Hinkley on what people can expect from his side after an off-season of soul searching:

“We’ve made some significant adjustments to our playing style, we’ve made significant adjustments to our coaching panel, and we’ve made significant adjustments to the playing group so we’re expecting some newness about us come Saturday.”