PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley has laughed off a warning from Richmond coach Damien Hardwick to anyone who gets in the way of forward Tom Lynch in Friday night’s Preliminary Final.

Hardwick on Wednesday wished “good luck” to anyone who tried to take Lynch’s space, following a hard contest in which a St Kilda opponent was injured when the Tigers forward crashed into his back.

Lynch was also fined for an incident where he deliberately put his knee into the neck of former Port defender Dougal Howard while he was lying on the ground.

There has been some criticism around Lynch’s physicality, but Hinkley had no issue with it.

“That’s what key forwards do. Dimma’s (Hardwick’s) right,” the Port coach said.

“We’ve got Charlie (Dixon) at the other end that’s not dissimilar and Tom Jonas will stand in the way of anything, any of our defenders will, as the Richmond players will.

“We expect key players to play that way as Dimma would too.”

When asked if he expected Dixon to take a leaf out of Lynch’s book, Hinkley was frank.

“I want him to play his game, which is a similar vein,” he said.

“He crashes packs, he hits things and he likes it.”

Port will be featuring in its second Preliminary Final under Hinkley, six years on from the last – a narrow loss to Hawthorn.

Hinkley is expecting a fierce contest with little separating the sides on the scoreboard.

“When you get the best four teams going at it, it’s exciting and you want to be a part of it,” he explained.

“We’ve tried for a lot of the time to make sure we’re a part of it.

“We’ve been there once in my time at Prelim Final stage.

“It’s line ball. It’s a prelim final. The odds would suggest the line in both games is about four points so that suggests to me there’s no favourites, there’s no underdogs, there’s four teams trying to get to a Grand Final and that’s a great reward.”

Despite having a Grand Final berth at stake, Hinkley was most impressed with the way the team and the club in general had remained composed about the opportunity they are presented with.

“It’s be unusual if we weren’t a bit anxious about the opportunity that’s in front of us but nervous is probably not the word,” he explained.

“We’ve planned as well as we can as coaches and I think we’re ready for the contest.

“The boys and the whole club have been really composed about the opportunity that’s in front of us.

“It feels like we’ve earnt it and it feels like we’ve got there the right way. We just want to go out there and play with some freedom and play with some fun that we’ve played with all year.

“We’ve been strong this year and whatever the challenge we’ve been able to match it and meet it.”

Port Adelaide will be buoyed by the largest crowd at Adelaide Oval since February, with more than 25,000 to pack the stands and the hill to cheer Port on.

Hinkley said he was grateful to the South Australian Government for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed for so many Port Adelaide people to be there to support his side.

“We know we’d fill the joint if we could with our fans,” he said.

“To see them up on the hill and to see them up in the stands, and to hear them – I mean you hear them.

“It’s an amazing atmosphere at Adelaide Oval, not just us, but everyone talks about it.”

Hinkley confirmed his side would go in unchanged from the team which beat Geelong in the Qualifying Final a fortnight ago with Todd Marshall and Xavier Duursma overcoming injury.

First bounce in Friday night’s Preliminary Final is at 7:20pm ACDST.