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Port Adelaide travels to Simonds Stadium to play Geelong with what is likely to be its most inexperienced team for the year as it tries to carry competitiveness with a squad battered by injury.

The Teams

Port Adelaide
Form: W L L L L L L W W W L L
Ranked: 13th

Geelong
Form: L W L W W W L L W W W L
Ranked: 7th


Keys to victory

All year Port Adelaide has credited risk-taking plays, four-quarter competitiveness and strong contested football as the necessary ingredients in each of its wins. That all changes with a new dynamic to enter a team which has essentially played out the last two months of football as a stable group. The absence of the leadership group and the pending influx of fresh replacements will give Geelong as much an unknown opponent as it has faced all year. The ability of the new faces to gel quickly and play cohesively will determine the final result.

Walking wounded

 It’s a battered squad that heads to Simonds Stadium - the week’s rest through a programmed bye allowing the Power squad to regroup and reassess its season heading into the final ten rounds of 2012. Captain Dom Cassisi (hip flexor) and club leaders Travis Boak (foot), Hamish Hartlett (hamstring), Jackson Trengove (finger) and Jay Schulz (abdomen) are all out of the side to play Geelong this weekend. It is a rarity that all of a club’s core leaders have missed a regular season game and Port is poorer for it. Still missing undoubtedly its most exciting forward in Robbie Gray and young Cam Hitchcock, and with Matt Thomas out with a two-week suspension, Port Adelaide limps into the Geelong game without eight first choice players and undoubtedly lacks some of its best talent.

Read More: Injury report

Captaincy question

Who will lead Port Adelaide onto the Kardinia turf on Sunday? The selection committee will determine who will captain the side in the coming days. Several candidates rise to the fore, particularly Troy Chaplin who has relieved the skipper role in the past. Chaplin however has offered Brad Ebert as a candidate and believes his leadership through consistently good performances puts him as the first choice for the role. Kane Cornes and Jacob Surjan have also been touted as potential candidates.

Read more: Ebert supporters’ choice for B+F

Young Talent Time

Further to the question of who will replace the omissions from this week’s team, Below is a possible line up for the weekend. You can tell us what you think below this article.

Out: Cassisi, Trengove, Hartlett, Schulz, Thomas
In: Carlile, Butcher, D. Stewart, Rodan, Blee, O’Shea, Lobbe, Young
New: Blee

B: Surjan, Carlile, P. Stewart
HB: Pearce, Chaplin, Pfeiffer
C: Cornes, Broadbent, Jacobs
HF: Brett Ebert, Westhoff, McCarthy
F: D. Stewart, Butcher, Wingard
Foll: Renouf, Brad Ebert, Moore
Int from: Redden, Logan, Rodan, Blee, O’Shea, Lobbe, Young

The on field eighteen isn’t much different from what we’ve seen this year - the five outs play across very different lines - but they bring class to the side which will be missed. Sunday’s team will be a blue collar outfit, light on experience. In the cut-and-thrust of modern AFL, it’s hard to find where the Power will find opportunity, but what this game offers is the potential to see a glimpse into Matthew Primus’ squad of the future taking shape.

Read More: In the Mix

Crystal Balling the key changes

Moore on the ball

Andrew Moore in the followers is something that many Port supporters want to see happen as a regular selection in the coming years and Sunday may be the first opportunity for him to play out a game running the full length of the ground. With the potential for Matt Broadbent to play through the midfield more and with the likes of ever solid Brad Ebert on-balling as well, Power fans are likely to be treated to a glimpse into the club’s future engine room.

Wingard and Jacobs pinch-hitting

Chad Wingard has big wraps on him after being selected by the Power in the first round of the National Draft and this weekend may see the coaches pinch-hit him through the midfield or on a wing. Ben Jacobs impact on the midfield will probably heighten this week as he develops into a future key centre man. Jacobs has developed his game significantly this year and this game will give him an opportunity to show that he is able to take on more responsibility with his leaders Cassisi and Boak out of the side.

Youth brigade to line the timber

Predicting the inclusion of a number of inexperienced players, the likes of Nathan Blee, Aaron Young, Cameron O’Shea and Matt Lobbe could make a debut or return appearance to the Power this weekend. All play very different positions and would replace very different players and whilst many may be squeezed out in future rounds as the leadership group trickles back into the first 22, they have the potential to be the future spine of the club and the selection panel is likely to give most, if not all of these players an opportunity this weekend.

The ledger

Played: 22, Port Adelaide: 8, Geelong: 14

The last time

Round 3, 2011 Kardinia Park - Port Adelaide 6.7 (43) def by Geelong 17.20 (122)

Match details

Geelong v Port Adelaide
Simonds Stadium, Geelong
Sunday 1 July 2012

First bounce: 1.10pm (local time)
Game Day and Broadcast Guide
Match centre

Final word

 A challenging match beckons against Geelong and with bookies rating Port a $8.50 chance to win, the Power youth brigade will need to step up to the plate.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Port Adelaide Football Club.