PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley has heaped praise on star forward Robbie Gray ahead of his 200^th AFL game on Saturday.

Gray will reach the milestone when the Power meets Melbourne at the MCG to open its season.

The 30-year-old is about to enter his 13^th season of AFL football, having endured a horror knee injury in 2012 and overcome testicular cancer in 2017.

The brilliant ball-winning midfielder/forward is renowned for his uncanny ability to win the ball at stoppages and to punish opposition sides around goal.

“He’s a star,” Hinkley said of the four-time All-Australian during an interview on Adelaide radio station FIVEaa.

“He’s one of those players that opposition even like watching when you’re not playing them because they’re so good to watch.

“I’m a little like that with Eddie Betts because he torments us when we play (Adelaide) but when you watch him play other games you think ‘God he can do some amazing things’ and I’m sure people say the same about Robbie Gray.

“He does some amazing things and you think back to last year’s Showdown where he kicked five in a quarter, and there’s a player you just don’t see very often.”

Along with his All-Australian honours, Gray is a three-time John Cahill Medallist as Port Adelaide’s best and fairest, was twice the club’s leading goalkicker and was in 2014 voted the 2014 AFL Coaches’ Association Player of the Year.

He has also won a record four Showdown Medals, including both on offer in 2018.

And while Gray is expected to be among the stars of Saturday’s occasion, some of his limelight will likely be stolen by Port Adelaide’s four AFL debutants.

Hinkley has confirmed first-round draftees Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Xavier Duursma will debut along with third-year midfielder Willem Drew.

The Power coach said it was a thrill to tell the boys they had been selected, and he did it in a different way to usual.

“We told them as a group because we’ve been working really hard in the space of bringing the boys together,” he explained.

“Typically, when you’ve got a debutant, you’ve got maybe one, and you’re miked up, you’ve got a camera (following you) and you’re talking to them and everyone gets around them.

“But on a day like (Tuesday) where you’ve got six for their first game for the football club and you’ve got four first-gamers, it was just incredibly exciting.

“It’s one of the great parts of the job when you tell people that they’re playing their first game.”

The last time any AFL side fielded four debutants was when the Power debuted Mitch Banner, Cam Hitchcock, Andrew Moore and Jackson Trengove in Round 1, 2010 against North Melbourne, when Port Adelaide own by 14 points.

Hinkley said he hoped history would repeat itself.