PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley says his side can’t afford to be complacent against St Kilda on Saturday afternoon, and he’s challenged forward Jack Watts to own his spot in the AFL side after the Melbourne recruit earned a recall.
The Power has won six of its last seven games including four in a row and comes up against a Saints outfit which has won its last two.
Hinkley said he paid close attention to how his opponents beat Melbourne last week, and he expected another difficult encounter at Adelaide Oval.
“Their willingness to take the game on was really clear,” he said.
"Knowing (Saints coach) Alan (Richardson) a little bit, you'd suggest they would continue on that path and give us some real challenges.
“We’ve talked about the word unconditional, we expect and respect that that’s what we want to be.
“You have to do that against whoever you play against, we’re not silly enough (to get complacent), we’ve looked at the competition.
“We’ve seen St Kilda beat Melbourne last week so this competition gives you no reason to be overconfident.”
Port has made four changes to the team which beat Carlton with Tom Jonas, Jack Watts and Darcy Byrne-Jones returning, and young forward Aidyn Johnson given another opportunity after just two AFL games this season.
Going out of the side
Hinkley said Watts had performed well in the SANFL and had earned his recall.
"Jack's opportunity is now in front of him to own the spot,” he said.
"Jack was never too far away, just some of his contest stuff we wanted to see get a little tighter on.
“At times he’ll need to be
Marshall has been named to play with the Magpies in the SANFL on Sunday and, like Watts when he was dropped, Hinkley backed him to return quickly.
"Toddy, over the last couple of weeks, hasn't been quite at the level he would expect of himself,” Hinkley said.
“It purely becomes about form and opportunities and for Todd he probably hasn’t made the most of those opportunities he’s had.
“He’s a young player, he’s got such an enormous upside and I suspect Todd will be back in the side reasonably quickly.”
Hinkley even suggested Watts and Marshall could play in the same side.
“We’d like to think that that can happen, no doubt about that, but there’s a combination of things to cover,” he said.
“It’s about scoreboard influence, it’s about opportunities, the pressure part of the game that we have to rate highly too and the defensive stuff as well.
“You’ve got to play a role in all area of the game and if they can do that, there’s no reason why they couldn’t play together.”
Pittard continues his injury-interrupted season.
Hinkley said the experienced defender had experienced some hamstring soreness during the week and had an MRI scan but it showed no issue.
“We’re just not prepared to take the risk, we just don’t want him to get a four-week hamstring right now,” he said.
“It’s a bit precautionary by us but we just need to be safe.”
It was a similar approach taken with Sam Gray, the Power’s second highest goal kicker this season.
“Sam’s carried an ankle for a couple of weeks now and it hasn’t quite got to the point where he’s been able to train throughout the week,” Hinkley said.
“It comes to a point where you need to put a break in that and get him right.
“We’re going to try and do that now and hopefully he may only miss the one
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