SAM POWELL-PEPPER was a welcome face at Port Adelaide training on Monday afternoon, returning to Alberton after four weeks away from the club.
The 23-year-old took time away to deal with some personal issues nearly a month ago. His return came with the players who featured in the club’s SANFL game on Thursday night.
General Manager – Football, Chris Davies said it was fantastic to have Powell-Pepper back.
“He spent about four weeks away from the club. He did a lot of work through that period and the people who are close to him believe that it’s the right time to come back into the group so he back out there today,” Davies told media at a press conference.
“He was always coming back; it was a matter of the time he needed to do what he has been over the past four weeks.
“I’m really pleased that he’s got to the point where we’re able to integrate him back into the group.”
Davies explained that Powell-Pepper would work with the strength and conditioning staff to get him back to a position where he was able to resume playing.
He said that would not be this week.
“We haven’t had him under our direct tutelage over the last three or four weeks so there’s no doubt he’s going to have to spend some time getting back up to the pace of training and when he plays again that’ll be another step forward,” Davies said.
“What I can say is that it won’t be this week.
“He’s not going to come straight back into the AFL team so there’ll be a stepped process of him getting used to the rigours of training and then getting back to a stage where we think he can compete at SANFL level.”
Davies explained that the club would put supports in place around Powell-Pepper to enable him to return to being a professional athlete.
He said given the explosive midfielder/forward’s missed training session last month was the catalyst for him to re-evaluate his life away from football, there would also be some work for him to do to ensure he still has the respect of the playing and coaching group.
“From here, his actions will talk more about whether he earns respect back or whether he even needs to,” Davies said.
“I’m just pleased that he’s back training and has the ability to do what we pay him to do, and that’s to play football.
“That can be a positive experience for him from here on in because he’s worked really hard over the last three or four weeks and I hope that this stands him in good stead to be a Port Adelaide player for as long as he can be.”
Attention at Alberton will quickly turn to Friday night’s preliminary final rematch against Richmond with both sides coming off disappointing losses at the weekend.
Davies was mindful that, like in the loss to the Eagles on Saturday night, if his side was not at its best, the reigning premiers will make it pay.
And, he said, Brownlow medallist Dustin Martin was unlikely to get a hard tag.
“Dustin is the best player in the competition so there’ll be some work put into him but the way we play our game is a team defensive game when we’re defending and we know we’ll need to be at our best in order to beat Richmond on Friday night,” he said.
“I think we’ll back our group to do the job but of course the coaches need to have contingencies to curtail any player’s influence.
“We’re well aware of Martin’s potential but he’s also got a team around him that we need to be mindful of.”
Port Adelaide takes on Richmond from 7:20pm on Friday night at Adelaide Oval.
