HAWTHORN and Port Adelaide will meet in Launceston for the fourth time on Saturday afternoon and the teams are split with two wins each at the University of Tasmania Stadium.
The last time they met at the venue was in Round 20, 2012 with the Hawks running out big winners, to the tune of 72 points.
The Hawks have won 22 of their last 25 games in Launceston, including 19 consecutive wins between 2012 and 2016.
The Power is the only side other than Hawthorn to have played more than one game at the venue and have a positive win/loss record.
Port Adelaide also holds the advantage in the overall record between the sides winning 19 of their 33 matches.
Four of the last six matches and three of the last four have been won by Port including a 51-point win at Adelaide Oval when the sides last met in Round 11, 2017.
The game will be the 50th for Port Adelaide defender Tom Clurey, while Hawks coach and former Power assistant Alastair Clarkson will celebrate his 450th game as a player and coach.
The teams
Port Adelaide has for the third week in a row named an unchanged line-up to the side which narrowly beat Adelaide in a thrilling Showdown and Gold Coast Suns in Shanghai before the bye.
Karl Amon and Jack Trengove have travelled to Launceston as emergencies.
The Hawks have made two changes, bringing back Tim O'Brien and Daniel Howe for the trip to Tasmania.
Young Mitch Lewis and David Mirra were the unlucky ones to miss out.
The last word
Ken Hinkley
"We like to perform when we travel, we know the importance of it and we make no secret of that around the club.
"When you win away from home, you mature as a football club and you give yourself the best chance to be successful.
"We're pretty good off the bye, and we have been.
"I think in my time we're 3-2, and one of those losses was Geelong last year by two points in a heartbreaker.
“Our form coming out of the bye is pretty consistent and hopefully it will be the same again this week.
"It needs to be because we know the challenge of Hawthorn in Tasmania and how good they've been down there."
Alastair Clarkson
"We haven't won the midfield battle in the last three or four games. Whether that's to do with Tom (Mitchell) or the rest of our midfield, they've been stronger than what we have, the oppositions that we've played in the last three games.
"If you're losing the midfield battle, you're most likely losing the game. As a collective, we need to get stronger and tougher in the middle of the ground.
"Some of the polish with our ball movement. We've just got to get a little bit better with the way that we use the ball.
"Coming up against a really good side this week that do use the ball particularly well so we need to defend well but when we get our chances, we've just got to take our chances a bit better than what we have in the past."
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