PORT ADELAIDE will make two changes to its side to face Geelong on Friday night with Sam Mayes to return after suspension and Steven Motlop to feature against his old side.
Motlop has not played since injuring his ankle in the Round 7 win over Carlton but was close to returning for last week’s win over Richmond.
Coach Ken Hinkley revealed he would replace Cam Sutcliffe while Mayes would take the place of Jarrod Lienert in defence.
And the Port coach said Motlop’s inclusion was more about covering the absence of Connor Rozee, who was a late withdrawal for the Tigers game and was replaced by Sutcliffe, than it was about letting him come up against his former side.
“He was nearly right last week,” Hinkley said about Motlop.
“We gave him the extra bit of training, like we did with Lycett the week before. We were somewhat cautious but optimistic about this week and he’s right to go.
“We think with Connor out of the side it’s important to bring Steven back in.”
Hinkley revealed Brad Ebert would be given another week to get some confidence after overcoming concussion symptoms, and Ryan Burton was also nearing a return.
The third-placed Cats present a big challenge for the top-placed Power, having completely dominated St Kilda early this week.
Hinkley explained he wanted his side to continue to play the way it wants to, although Geelong had a way of preventing sides from doing that.
“We understand Geelong has been such a great team and the weapons they have. They’ve got so many strengths,” he said.
“They’re the most experienced team out there. I think they’ve got seven blokes who are over 30 and average games I think was 140+.
“They’ve got such great experience so you’ve got to keep at it for four quarters because their experience doesn’t go away at any stage in those four quarters and they’ve been such a great club, led really well by Chris (Scott) – and they’ll be hard work for any side.
“They have this amazing ability to take things off sides and that’s our challenge. They’re going to try take things off us that we hope we can put out there that they can’t stop but we’re going to have our hands full no doubt.”
The six-day break between games has been the longest Port has enjoyed for a while during the congested fixture period, but Hinkley said he was pleased with how well his players were holding up.
“It’s reasonable to assume that we’d be feeling a bit fresher. We’ve had a good training week and we get an opportunity this week to go up there a touch fresher perhaps,” he said.
“We did approach this period, and we weren’t sure how this was going to play out and how our players were going to recover, but what we’ve found all the way through is the condition of our players and the condition of our conditioning staff have done with them has put them in a really healthy position.
“We’ve had a couple of injuries but outside of that, we feel like we’ve been able to recover and be ready to play, whether that was four days, five days or this week six days.”
Top of the table by a game and percentage, and having beaten the reigning premier last week, there has been a lot of discussion in the media about Port Adelaide’s premiership credentials.
But Hinkley is not buying into it.
“We’re nowhere yet,” he said.
“We understand that we’ve got a good position on the ladder this year but the success of a football club is long-term success - it’s not one season or twelve games.
“We continue to work at it but if you go down the path of culture and connection and values, you’re more likely to get there than not.
“At the moment it’s half a season and there’s a long way to go.”
