PORT Adelaide's ruck armory is a step closer to being fully equipped, with promising big man Matthew Lobbe to return to action against Melbourne on Sunday.

Lobbe sat out the opening round of the NAB Cup with hamstring soreness and was restricted to just nine games last year because of hip and hamstring issues.

In those nine games he averaged 18 hit-outs and 10 disposals a game, which included a 32 hit-out, two-goal performance against St Kilda in round one.

The 200cm 24-year-old will join Jarrad Redden in Renmark; the potential of whom senior assistant coach Alan Richardson recently compared to star Adelaide ruckman Sam Jacobs.

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It will be coach Ken Hinkley's first look at how his ruck setup could appear come round one.

"We'll be taking 'Lobbes' up [to Renmark]," Hinkley said on Thursday.

"Obviously he's one of those players I need to see a little bit. He's had a bit of restriction for the last couple of weeks.

"We're really keen to see him play with big 'Reddo' (Redden) and get them in the ruck together and see how they go."

And with former Hawthorn premiership ruckman Brent Renouf close to rejoining the main training group, Hinkley said the Power's stocks could triple in less than two weeks.

"We need to get big 'Roofy' (Renouf) back on the park and, look, he's right back into training now so we're excited about what he's been able to do," he said.

"In five or six days we're probably going to have three of them available whereas only 10 days ago we had one.

"It makes a pretty big difference to what you can do…it's nice to have some ruckmen available."

Hinkley was less jubilant about the prospect of travelling close to 2,500km to play the next two NAB Cup games on rural grounds.

The Power will train on Saturday morning before diving to Renmark on Saturday and then fly to Alice Springs the following week to play West Coast with just six days' rest.

While preferable to play each game in Adelaide, Hinkley understood travel was simply something clubs had to deal with.

"We'll be back (from Renmark) Sunday night and we'll be preparing really early because we go to Alice Springs the following week off a six-day break, so that's a pretty difficult one," he said.

"It certainly doesn't sit well with me that we have to do all that, but that's part of the competition and there's sides travelling everywhere.

"If you asked me for an ideal world we'd play seven-day breaks and we'd play them all in Adelaide."

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Matthew Lobbe is a ruckman in AFL Fantasy. He averaged 66.89 points in 2012.

Harry Thring is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry. Register your team at our AFL Fantasy hub