JACOB Surjan admits that Port Adelaide’s defence will face one of its biggest challenges of the year when the Power host premiership favourites Hawthorn at AAMI Stadium on Sunday evening.

The Port defender acknowledges all eyes will be on Hawthorn centre half forward Lance Franklin after the Coleman medallist’s 13 goal performance in Tasmania last week.

“Our defenders have got a big task - Franklin’s obviously kicked thirteen goals - and we’ll all have to work hard to stop him,” said Surjan.

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After Port Adelaide’s defence effected some of its best transition work against Carlton last weekend, Surjan asserted that the Power’s defence quickly moved its focus to the challenge of Hawthorn’s attack.

“We’ve just prepared like we have every other week - we come out and study our opposition like we always do,” he said.

Revealing the key to Port Adelaide’s solid defensive rebound, Surjan was pleased with the way the backline worked against the Blues and expects a similar performance on Sunday afternoon.

“We just wanted to keep getting the ball forward and keep getting it to go our way - we were really happy with the result.”

“They’re a quality side [Carlton] and everyone sees them as a top-four side so it was a massive scalp for us and we just have to keep the fait, keep on doing what we’re doing, keep at it on the training track.

Surjan, like his Power teammates throughout the week, expects Alipate ‘Bobby’ Carlile to be the main defender to work on Franklin, but equally expects the defenders to respect all of Hawthorn’s opposition and focus on getting the ball to Port Adelaide’s ever-developing midfield.

“Chappy, Bobby and the other guys in our backline really generated our switch and our run going forward and the midfielders spreading to the outer side was fantastic so a lot of credit needed to go to them as well.”

“As I say though, ‘Bobby’ and the rest of us have a big job ahead of us and we’re determined to do that job well.”

Port Adelaide’s match against Hawthorn starts at 4.10pm on Sunday 10 June.