Port Adelaide fans are set to be excited by the silky skills of the club’s youngest player, Marlon Motlop, when he dons the Power colours for the first time on Saturday. Marlon, the younger cousin of Power forward Daniel, was taken with pick 28 in the 2007 NAB AFL Draft and made a promising league debut for North Adelaide earlier this year, slotting three goals.

At 18, Motlop becomes the Power’s fifth debutant in just four weeks, with the club choosing to blood youngsters in preparation for the 2009 season. He will be joined by his cousin Daniel, who was a late withdrawal from the Collingwood game because of a groin injury.

Inspirational ruckman Dean Brogan and fearless defender Paul Stewart will also return to the side.

Here’s Port Adelaide’s General Manager – Football Operations Peter Rohde’s inside word on this week’s selection.

Another debutant this week in Marlon Motlop. Marlon’s shown good consistent form in the North Adelaide reserves side but hasn’t been able to crack into the league side on a regular basis. With Robbie Gray going out of the side, a position became available, and we’re hoping Marlon can add some excitement up forward.

Daniel Motlop and Broges have both recovered from relatively minor injuries and will be a boost to the side. Paul Stewart also returns after he was somewhat unlucky to be dropped last week.

Going out of the side are Farmer, Williams, Gray and Pettigrew. We were impressed with what we saw from Mitch, especially in his first game, and hopefully giving him that taste of AFL action will spur him on to have a big pre-season.

Ryan Williams has had a consistent year at Central and learnt a lot from his two AFL games. He’ll go back to the SANFL and feature very heavily in the Bulldogs’ finals charge.

Robbie Gray will miss with an ankle injury and Michael Pettigrew had arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder because of a niggling injury, but he’ll be right for pre-season training.

The Power’s final team to face the Demons, as named at 4.30pm on Thursday, is as follows…

B: Toby Thurstans, Alipate Carlile, Nick Lower
HB: Jacob Surjan, Troy Chaplin, Peter Burgoyne
C: Domenic Cassisi, Kane Cornes, Travis Boak
HF: Tom Logan, Matthew Westhoff, Danyle Pearce
F: Justin Westhoff, Daniel Motlop, Brett Ebert
Foll: Dean Brogan, Shaun Burgoyne, David Rodan
Interchange: Brendon Lade, Marlon Motlop, Paul Stewart, Damon White
Emergencies: Greg Bentley, Mitch Farmer, Nathan Lonie

IN: Dean Brogan, Daniel Motlop, Marlon Motlop, Paul Stewart
OUT: Mitch Farmer, Ryan Williams (omitted), Robbie Gray (ankle), Michael Pettigrew (shoulder)