IN: Wines
OUT: Burton (knee)
PORT ADELAIDE vice captain Ollie Wines has been named to play his first AFL game since August against Fremantle on Sunday.
The club today trimmed the 26-man squad it named last night to the 22 which will face the Dockers at Metricon Stadium, and included Wines in place of the injured Ryan Burton.
Burton had surgery on his knee on Tuesday, ruling him out for three to four weeks.
Wines suffered a dislocated shoulder, requiring surgery, after a training incident in January.
He showed no signs of discomfort in a best on ground performance in the club’s trial game against Adelaide last weekend.
“He was really good. He did what we expected him to do, as he’d done through the second pre-season of training. He’d been really really dominant at training but we hadn’t seen him play,” coach Ken Hinkley said on Friday morning of Wines.
“It was an easy decision for us. He gets to play a game of football, he was in good form, he’s our vice-captain and he comes back into our team.”
Coincidentally Wines’ last AFL game was against Fremantle – a 43-point win in Round 23 last season in which the 25-year-old had 33 disposals, eight tackles and six clearances.
Hinkley said the return of Wines means Dan Houston will shift back into defence after starting 2020 in the midfield.
Port Adelaide will play the first of its three matches in the Queensland AFL hub against Fremantle on Sunday from 6:10pm local time / 5:40pm ACST.
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