PORT Adelaide midfielder Kane Cornes says Fabian Deluca can fill the breach if premiership ruckman Dean Brogan fails to overcome an abdominal strain before Thursday night's Grand Final rematch against Geelong.
Deluca was the undisputable surprise packet of Port Adelaide’s pre-season.
The 21-year-old, 203cm ruckman, played all four games over the summer and held his own against seasoned big men Aaron Sandilands and Darren Jolly.
Last week, coach Mark Williams rated Brogan a "50-50 chance" to line up against the Cats and, in a seismic shift of opinion, midfielder Kane Cornes said it wouldn’t be a "huge in" if the former basketballer was to return this week.
"With the form of Fabian Deluca during the pre-season, I think we’d all be feeling very confident if he’s there in our 22 on Thursday. Definitely we’d be a lot more confident now than if he was in the team at this time last year," Cornes said.
"Obviously our record with Brogan playing is great, but I think Deluca can definitely do the job."
The Power’s other injury concern is defender Troy Chaplin, who broke a bone in his hand less than a month ago.
Chaplin, 22, is considered a vital cog in the young Port Adelaide defence, which will be put to the test this week by last year’s highest-scoring team.
"The defence is relatively inexperienced," Cornes said. "If you’re looking at one area where most of our young players are coming from it's certainly in our defence.
“While 'Chappy' is a young player, he’s a smart footballer and he brings a bit of leadership to the back line.”
Second-year player Paul Stewart is in line to make his AFL debut if Chaplin pulls up sore on Tuesday morning.
“Stewart will be one who is certainly pushing for selection," Cornes said. "I think he has been terrific for us in the pre-season and he’s probably a similar player to Chaplin."
“He’s probably not quite as tall as Troy, but he wouldn’t be a bad match-up for Steve Johnson or someone like that. He’ll slot in there nicely.”
Another player likely to come in to last year’s Grand Final side is rugged youngster Matt Thomas.
Thomas played 12 games for the Power last season before injuring his knee and is primed for a big job this week having spent the summer being groomed as a negating midfielder.
“Matty is very versatile and he’s played a lot of footy across half-back, so if he was to match-up on say a Gary Ablett Jr - I’d be pretty confident Matty could play on him,” Cornes said.
“He could also go with any number of their midfielders like Joel Corey, Jimmy Bartel or a Joel Selwood.”
Exciting forward Nathan Krakouer is also rated as a 'test' on the club's official injury list.
