FOUR CHANGES have been made to Port Adelaide’s side to play Carlton in the final ever AFL game at AAMI Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Both Alipate Carille and Kane Mitchell have been forced out of the team with back injuries.

Carlile has nursed back irritation for several weeks while Mitchell sustained his injury at training.

“Bobby (Carlile) isn’t right to play this week unfortunately and Mitchy (Mitchell) hurt himself at training on Wednesday,” Richardson told portadelaidefc.com.au.

“He’s had preliminary scans and we’re hoping he’ll be available next week.”

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Campbell Heath and Jake Neade have both been omitted from the team, with Richardson citing the critical need for Port to choose in-form players ahead of the finals.

“We’ve been pretty happy with the way Campbell’s gone, but the reality at this time of the year is that we’re looking to continually improve,” Richardson said.

“While he’s been solid, he just hasn’t quite done enough to cement his place in the team.

“Jake’s exactly the same, he’s been OK, but right now we’re not looking for just OK.

“We were pretty disappointed with last week’s team performance, and when there are performances like that there are guys who could be unlucky to not retain their position.”

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Dom Cassisi headlines the inclusions after missing the last two matches with hamstring tightness, while Jack Hombsch will also play his first game since overcoming a cheekbone fracture.

“Dom had minor hamstring tightness and has done a lot of running over the last couple of weeks," Richardson said.

“He could’ve played last week but we wanted to be conservative with him given his history this year.

“‘Hombschy’ gets an opportunity given that Carlile hasn't come up for this week.

“His injury was a facial one, which means he’s been able to continue his running work for the last couple of weeks and we expect he’ll fill the void left by Bobby.”

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Lewis Stevenson and Tom Logan have both been called into the team after strong form in the SANFL for several weeks.

“Both have been in pretty good form, Logan has played well for us when he’s come into the team and the same with Lewy,” Richardson said.

“Their SANFL form has been pretty good in the last couple of weeks and we really feel they’ll add another dimension to the team.

“They have the capacity to play important roles on Carlton’s three small, damaging forwards.”

Richardson rates Carlton’s attacking football as an area of concern this weekend and is expecting them to come out firing.

“Carlton are an incredibly talented group and we need to be able to shut down their time and space.”

“They’re an impressive offensive team, their run and carry, and ability to score quickly hurts a lot of teams.

“That's a challenge for us to reclaim some of our defensive and pressure football on Saturday.”

Port Adelaide hosts Carlton at 4:10pm on Saturday afternoon at AAMI Stadium. Click here for a full entertainment guide.

Port Adelaide Round 23 team v Carlton
FB: Cameron O’Shea, Jack Hombsch, Tom Logan
HB: Matthew Broadbent, Jackson Trengove, Tom Jonas
C: Brad Ebert, Travis Boak, Kane Cornes
HF: Robbie Gray, Justin Westhoff, Dom Cassisi
FF: Chad Wingard, Jay Schulz, Angus Monfries
Foll: Matthew Lobbe, Andrew Moore, Oliver Wines
Interchange: Lewis Stevenson, Jasper Pittard, Sam Colquhoun, Aaron Young

Emergencies: Campbell Heath, Brent Renouf, Jake Neade

In: Dom Cassisi, Jack Hombsch, Tom Logan, Lewis Stevenson
Out: Alipate Carlile (back), Kane Mitchell (back), Campbell Heath, Jake Neade (omitted)