Adam Thomson, Nathan Krakouer and Tom Logan, who were inclusions in last week’s team against West Coast, have all retained their spots for the clash with the Saints this Saturday night.
Here’s Power General Manager – Football Operations Peter Rohde’s inside word on this week’s selection…
We were very pleased with the way we played last week overall, so we’ve decided to go in unchanged. We’ve got no real need to bring people in and out if the team is performing. We’d rather keep the team stable if possible.
It’s promising that we’ve got two emergencies in Paul Stewart and Danyle Pearce who could easily be in the team, but we think it’s a good time to stabilise things and reward the fact we got our first win last week.
Chappy and Thommo both trained last night and will be right to play this weekend. Chappy was probably alright on Monday – he had a bit of headache on Sunday, but he was ok by Monday. Thommo got a bruise to the back of his arm but that has improved pretty quickly.
Rodan has a bit of ongoing knee soreness that we’re managing but if the game had been played today he would have been right to play. There are no issues with his fitness but he can’t train as much as he’d want to at the moment because of the soreness.
A few guys in the SANFL had great games which is good because it keeps the pressure on the senior team. Robbie Gray was probably best on ground for West, but we think he needs another run in the local league. Deluca was in good form and Pearcey went back to the SANFL and was very solid.
It will be interesting to see what the Saints do in the ruck – with Gardiner and King out – we’re expecting Koschitzke to ruck more and Rix might back him up. With Riewoldt, Dal Santo and Milne we’ve got a few interesting match-ups to think about, but the Saints will have to worry about our players too.
We play well against the Saints historically – I think we’ve won 10 out of our last 11 – so hopefully we’ll be able to keep that going.
The Power’s final 22 to face the Saints, as named at 4.30pm on Thursday, is as follows…
B: Michael Pettigrew, Alipate Carlile, Jacob Surjan
HB: Peter Burgoyne, Toby Thurstans, Dom Cassisi
C: Travis Boak, Chad Cornes, Kane Cornes
HF: David Rodan, Warren Tredrea, Brett Ebert
F: Daniel Motlop, Justin Westhoff, Brendon Lade
Foll: Dean Brogan, Steven Salopek, Shaun Burgoyne
Interchange: Troy Chaplin, Tom Logan, Nathan Krakouer, Adam Thomson
Emergencies: Danyle Pearce, Paul Stewart, Greg Bentley
IN:
OUT:
