Schulz and Hartlett return

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See the full line-ups for both sides at the bottom of the article


Defender Troy Chaplin is out of the team beaten by Fremantle at AAMI Stadium last week, suffering from a knee injury. Darren Pfeiffer has been omitted.

Schulz returns despite initial concerns that he might have missed the remainder of the season after due to abdominal bleeding caused by a collision with team-mate Justin Westhoff.

Port Adelaide general manager football Peter Rohde said Schulz had fully recovered and proved he was ready to resume at AFL level in the club’s inaugural clash with the Giants.

“We had our concerns whether he’d get back at all this season, but he’s certainly had the medical all-clear a couple of weeks ago,” Rohde told PortAdelaideFC.com.au.

“He’s trained very well since then and he’s looking forward to resuming his season. He’s arguably been our best player this year so far when he’s been out there.”

[ Video: Schulz to return ]

Despite missing the past five games, Schulz remains the Power’s leading goal-kicker for 2012 and is an important inclusion.

“He demands the ball and he straightens us up a bit and our players love having him in the side,” Rohde said.

“He makes our forward structure I think work all the better. Justin Westhoff, I think, benefits from having him in the team. It leaves Justin to paly further up the ground and normally Schulzy gets the number one defender so it means everyone else gets a better opportunity.”

Hartlett returns from a hamstring injury which has been managed conservatively by Power fitness staff.

“He’s got a history of some soft tissue issues although his last hamstring is two-and-a-half years ago,” Rohde said.

“We don’t want to turn it into a recurring complaint, so we’ve been very conservative in bringing him back. He could have probably played last week, but we thought an extra week of training and we’re hoping he’ll get back and have a good run until the end of the season.”

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Chaplin has a history of knee soreness and has been left out of the team to give him an opportunity to regain strength.

“Chappy’s had some issues with his knee over an extended period,” Rohdey said.

“He hasn’t been able to train a lot and we were disappointed with his form last week. We think that his confidence hasn’t been a bit down, so we hope he can get his knee right and get a bit of training back under his belt and then get into the side.”

Having been recalled to cover the injury to Jasper Pittard, Pfieffer finds himself out of the team once again.

“Pfeiff's probably been a little unlucky in that he’s been in and out of the side,” Rohde said.

“He turned the ball over a bit last week and obviously with Hamish coming back in, you know Hamish will play a similar sort of role at wing and half-back.

“That meant that Pfeiff got squeezed out. Jasper came in for him the other week and only lasted the game so Pfeiff’s been in and out a bit. We’d like to get him a couple of weeks back in the SANFL to get his form up and going and get him back in the team to have another look at him before the end of the year.”

The Power and Giants clash for the first time at Skoda Stadium from 1.40pm (SA time) on Saturday.