Five Changes

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Aaron Young will miss the game due to an ankle injury, while Tom Logan, Simon Phillips, David Rodan and Daniel Stewart have been omitted from the team beaten by Fremantle at Patersons Stadium last Sunday.

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Port Adelaide general manger football Peter Rohde said the selectors were fortunate to have a number of personnel options, as the Power aims to snap a six-game losing streak.

“The thing is we’ve got some blokes coming back from injury and some blokes in form to come into the side,” Rohde said.

“Obviously we’re not happy with the way that we’ve been playing but compounding that is the fact that we’ve got Wingard and Schulz available and Thomas, Pearce and Pfeiffer have all had good form in the SANFL so it’s making the changes a fair bit easier.”

Schulz’s return as a tall forward alongside John Butcher and Justin Westhoff forces Stewart out of the team, and leaves Westhoff and Jackson Trengove as back-up ruckmen to Brent Renouf.

“Daniel’s marked the ball OK forward when we get forward well enough, but perhaps his impact in the ruck has dropped away,” Rohde said.

“There’s a chance of it being wet at the weekend with showers, and North Melbourne don’t play a very tall team and we want some flexibility so we thought we could go with one tall less this week.”

Pearce returns to the team two weeks after being dropped from the line-up and with impressive back-to-back performances with Sturt in the SANFL.

“We’re really pleased that Pearcey has gone back and worked on the defensive part of his game and those sort of things,” Rohde said.

“He’s been in the best two or three both games. He’s played a combination of back and midfield and worked very hard in both games … and certainly the style of play at Sturt is similar to the style we want from him so it’s worked out well.”

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Rodan finds himself omitted for the second time this season, following a disappointing effort against Fremantle, both with the ball and without.

“We thought he struggled to impact the game away from the stoppages and really struggled to break clear of the stoppages last week as well,” Rohde said.

“He got his hand on the ball with first possession, but his impact on the game versus his opponent hasn’t been what we wanted.”

The Power has opened its midfield options, recalling Thomas whose impressive form at SANFL level with Norwood demanded his selection after being left out for four weeks.

“Matt’s been competitive as he’s always been and very tough, but he’s certainly worked on getting more of the ball around the ground,” Rohde said.

“His use of the ball was probably the issue early in the season he was great inside and at stoppages both at winning the ball himself and in pressuring and tackling in close, but he probably needed to do more outside in terms of being able to shut down his own man and get the ball himself. He worked on that at Norwood and pushed his way back in.”

Pfeiffer - who was upgraded from the rookie list before playing his first game with his third AFL club in Round 4 - comes back after just one week out and a solid showing for Norwood.

“He went back and straight away played good footy at Norwood so he comes straight back in again which I think is a good fit,” Rohde said.

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Logan returns to Glenelg after two weeks back at AFL level and Phillips will resume with Norwood after failing to have an impact in his recall to the Power ranks last week.

“The bottom line is we’ve got five guys ready to come in and we’ve played poorly in the last couple of weeks,” Rohde said.

“We’re going to want to make some changes and get the mix right. There’s no hiding from the fact the blokes going out haven’t lived up to what we’d have liked from them.”

Jarrad Redden, Andrew Moore and Phillips are names as emergencies.

Redden is on the cusp of a recall, but he remains out of the line-up as selectors stick with a single specialist ruckman in Brent Renouf.

“He’s come back and played well with the Eagles this week so we’re very keen to get him back in the side,” Rohde said.

“At some stage we’ll look at playing two rucks in the team.”

Moore has been very impressive with North Adelaide and is unlucky to still be out of the Power line-up, but it’s hoped another week at SANFL will help him maintain good form.

“In the past we’ve brought him in the team quickly and may not have given him a chance to succeed, so we’d love him to keep his form up in the SANFL and bring him in on the back of some really strong consistent form,” Rohde said.

“He’s had a lot of injures. He’s had an interrupted couple of years. We like the fact that he’s played five of six games in a row now and his form’s got better in the reserves level first of all at North Adelaide and then he’s played three games at league level and the last two have been really good.”

Port Adelaide and North Melbourne clash at AAMI Stadium from 1.15pm on Saturday.

The finals of the Aboriginal Power Cup will be played as curtain-raisers from 11.30am, with the event being staged as part of AFL Indigenous Round for the first time in its five-year history.