Zak Butters returns to spark up Port Adelaide's attack in the top-four battle against the AFL's meanest defence at Melbourne on Thursday night.

And Port Adelaide is strengthening its back division by recalling Tom Clurey - and playing all "tall defenders" with Clurey, captain Tom Jonas, the close-checking Trent McKenzie and intercept marshall Aliir Aliir in the line-up for the Adelaide Oval encounter.

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley also confirmed before the captain's run training session at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday morning the selection of former captain Travis Boak. Concerns on Monday - when Boak had scans for a tight hamstring - have been cleared away to ensure the match-breaking midfielder will play his 298th AFL game against Melbourne in Thursday Night Football.

Team selection - barring no setbacks after training - will read: Butters and Clurey replacing Riley Bonner and young midfielder Kane Farrell who is sidelined with a season-ending right-knee injury (anterior cruciate ligament).

Butters returns after playing one game in the SANFL - on Saturday against Central District at Elizabeth Oval - for his first AFL match since suffering ankle and knee injuries against AFL premier Richmond on April 9.

Clurey also resumes after one SANFL outing to play his first AFL match since suffering a broken jaw against the Western Bulldogs on May 15.

Butters will make a much-anticipated run - with no limits - to help crack the league's best defence that has conceded an average 85 points this season (one less than Port Adelaide).

Hinkley was convinced of Butters' readiness for an AFL call from the moment he stepped onto Elizabeth Oval on Saturday afternoon.

"He just had to take the field - that is all he needed to do," Hinkley said. 

"Zak is an AFL player every day of the week. We needed to give him a run to allow to feel like he is capable of doing what he needs to do. We were really pleased with what he was able to do.

"He's really important to us. But we have seen people come off these injuries - I will use (Geelong midfielder and Brownlow Medallist) Paddy Dangerfield as an example; Paddy has been back three weeks, but last week he was back at his best from what I have seen. The expectation on Zak is he will be good for us back in the team, but he will certainly get better as each week goes."

Hinkley described Boak's response to tightening hamstrings as the actions of a "pro".

"He is managing his body; he is a pro - and he knows when he is not quite been perfect," Hinkley said. "He wasn't quite right going through last week. He got through the game (against Hawthorn) fine. So it was the same situation (this week) where we just manage him through ... 

"The scans are okay."

A year after hearing he did not have enough height in defence, Hinkley has no difficulty working Jonas, Clurey, McKenzie and Aliir in a defensive unit.

"We will play our talls where we need to play them," Hinkley said. "We're lucky that our talls are not really big people - they are basically 191-192 centimetres; almost a normal size defender.

"They can certainly play together. And that is something we have wanted to have a look at. We had Trent in pretty good form for a while (in the SANFL) with Clurey in the AFL team and we were not prepared to go there, but we think we are at a stage now where we need to have a look at this and see where it takes us."

Port Adelaide will again work its three-talls attack - All-Australian key Charlie Dixon and young pair Todd Marshall and Mitch Georgiades; this time against a mean Melbourne defence with the double intercept advantage offered by Jake Lever and ruckman Max Gawn.

"I don't know that it's going to say too much about our forwards other than we have got a really talented defensive team that we are going to have to go up against," Hinkley said. "But every time you play the very top sides in the competition you face significant challenges whether it be defence or offence or contest.

"The challenge (with the Melbourne defence) is to lessen what they can do and put a bit more heat on them."

Port Adelaide lead ruckman Scott Lycett's proven eagerness to score goals will force Gawn into a more accountable game when he moves into defensive plays.

"We have got a really good ruckman who can play on him too, Scott Lycett," Hinkley said. "It will be a challenge for Max at the same time. So both blokes have got their own talents, but they have got great respect for each other I am sure.

"Max will have to make sure he's aware of where Scott is and vica versa ..."

The pairing of second-ranked Melbourne (12-3) and Port Adelaide (11-4) ensures the match is not cast as a "danger game" but it will offer another chapter in the long-running book on how Port Adelaide deals with higher-placed opponents.

Hinkley maintains: "It's another game, it's a great opportunity. It's against one of the best teams in the competition and it's an opportunity to get further education of where we're at and what we're doing.

"It will be like the next five or six weeks, it will give us opportunities to get better.

"The one thing I want is a win. The learning curve is that we keep fine tuning our own game regardless of who the opposition are ... That is what we do each week. We educate and we process our football team every week. You can always get improvements, in personnel and game style.

"A win would be very very important for us.

"And you do want to gain some confidence out of (top-of-the-table clashes). There is no doubt about that, but the reality is - win or lose - you have got to keep going and keep turning up.

"I don't think any team in the top four or five or six at the moment is hanging their hat on one game, one result. It's still for us a challenge week-in, week-out - trying to get enough results in our favour."

The match will begin at 7.10pm Thursday with 100 per cent capacity to Adelaide Oval.

On the injury front, Hinkley is cautious marking with the AFL recalls of midfielder Xavier Duursma and specialist forward Orazio Fantasia as they both recuperate from knee injuries.

"Xavier is a little bit different (to Butters)," Hinkley said of the midfielder who also was injured in the epic clash with Richmond at Adelaide Oval in round 4. "He has had soft-tissue injuries in the past have been a bit of a concern for us. We will be a little bit more mindful of what type of numbers he is producing and how he goes in the game (in the SANFL) as well. We will let him play through the week and see what happens."

Fantasia's return has taken longer than first predicted after he had knee surgery during the mid-season bye a month ago.

"It's a frustrating one for us, as it is for him," Hinkley said. "He had further information again this week; he has seen the surgeons again this week to make sure that we're on track with what it is.

"It's now push ahead and see where it goes. We think it's still probably two or three weeks, but it might not be that; it might be longer.

"It's a frustrating injury for him. He has had some surgery to fix his knee and it hasn't quite responded the way we have liked. It's a week-to-week proposition a bit.

"He has got some issues with his knee that are being managed; the surgery we were hopeful would fix it mainly, but there's still some problems with it."