AN INJURY in Friday night's clash with Melbourne is the only thing that can prevent young ruckman Jarrad Redden from lining up for Port Adelaide against St Kilda in round one.

Coach Matthew Primus has sung Redden's praises all pre-season and said the 21-year-old was ready to make his official debut.

"He's done enough, he's played enough, he's had a good enough pre-season and his form would say he's good enough," Primus said of Redden's possible round one selection.

"He's been terrific for us the last three weeks, we've found somebody.

"It will give us a good selection dilemma to discuss over the next fortnight."

Primus said lining up against star Melbourne big man Mark Jamar would offer Redden yet another massive challenge before the start of the season.

"Jamar's in pretty good form and he'll (Redden) be using that as a good hit-out," he said.

"It's another big test for Jarrad and along with Daniel Stewart, those two have been pretty good by handling the ruck duties for us.

"We're looking forward for those two to be putting their hands up saying they want to play round one."

Brent Renouf will sit out Friday's match with a sore knee after he pulled up sore from last Saturday's clash with Fremantle.

Primus said the Hawthorn premiership player should play locally next week.
 
"[Alipate] Carlile's out this week too and so is [David] Rodan, who didn't quite come up for the game, but we'd all expect that they'll play some kind of game next week in the SANFL," he said.

Harry Thring covers Port Adelaide news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.

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