PORT ADELAIDE assistant coach Brendon Lade says ruckman Paddy Ryder’s best form is ahead of him this season, warning that his side can go to another level with stoppages with the All-Australian fit and firing.

Ryder has played the last eight AFL games after an Achilles injury flared up in Round 1 and saw him sidelined for five weeks.

The Power has won six of the last eight games including four in a row.

Ryder will have to manage his injury throughout the season but Lade says he seems to be improving each week.

“You can normally tell with him that by the end of the game he’s limping a lot but the last two weeks he hasn’t limped at all so he’s been very diligent in his rehab,” Lade said at a press conference on Monday.

“Getting it right with icing at home and a wheat bag during games - he’s doing everything he can to get through and he’s doing a good job at the moment.

“He’s had some patches where he’s been brilliant, there’s been some times that he hasn’t been as good as he should have been.

“He’s getting back into some good work on the training track and hopefully we see the benefits of that in the next three or four weeks because if he gets up and going we’re an even better stoppage team.

“Paddy’s best form is definitely still ahead of him.”

The Power is just percentage off second spot on the ladder with ten wins from its 14 games.

But Lade has warned his side against complacency, especially with games against St Kilda (15th), Fremantle (13th) and GWS (6th) coming up.

“To be 10-4 at this time of the year is great for the footy club and a real positive boost for the boys and the coaches to know we’re on the right track,” he said.

“The evenness of the comp, and you saw on the weekend some of the results how close they were, people wouldn’t have picked them – I think I got three in my tips this week – so the competition is so even.

“For us to show some maturity, to win a game like that that in the past we probably would have lost – and to get four wins in a row has been a great feeling for our group.”

Lade is also loathed to place expectations on the Power’s season with eight games remaining and the squeeze for finals spots hotting up.

“We’re not quite in finals yet are we?” he said.

“Ten (wins) is not quite there.

“We’re in as good a position as we can be at this stage of the year and we will push forward to finals, we’re aiming for that and we will assess our expectations when we get there.”