OLLIE LORD surprised many when he made his AFL debut last season, but after 15 goals in 13 games the young forward is chasing more.

At 22 and in just his fourth year at the club, the aggressive 197cm big man has put in a solid pre-season as he competes for a spot in a stacked Port Adelaide forward line.

A stand-out four-goal showing against Brisbane in last year’s finals series gave Lord the confidence to know he belonged at the level, but with Charlie Dixon, Todd Marshall and Jeremy Finlayson competing with him, Lord knows there is no guarantee he’ll be in the side to face West Coast to open the season next week.

Speaking with the media on Wednesday, Lord also discussed the return from injury of fellow forward Mitch Georgiades, his takeaways following the recent rulings on head high contact and bumping, and whether he expects midfielder Zak Butters to feature against the Eagles.

Ollie Lord on the feeling around the club as the season approaches:

“I think everyone's just really excited, round one, our first games in two weeks so we're just preparing for that, as everyone else is, but it's been a long preseason and it's felt like a long time since we've got footy back. I think the overall sense in the club and for me personally, (is) just excitement. (I’m) just ready to go for round one.”

Ollie Lord on the competition for spots amongst Port Adelaide’s tall forwards this pre-season:

“I think with any team competition for spot is really healthy. It just means you're a strong team and within the forward line, I think we've got a lot of different options up there. For me at the moment, it’s just putting my best foot forward and making sure I show the coaches what I can do… and leave the decision up to them.

“I feel like we all will lean on each other. As much as there's competition for spots within the team, we're all still really close, and we all help each other. We just want the best thing for the team. And I think no one really knows what the best layout is at the moment, it’s very early in the season so I think everyone's just trying to put their best foot forward and we all want to play, but I think it's pretty obvious that four doesn't go into three so yeah, it'll be interesting to see.”

Ollie Lord on the confidence he got from his four-goal finals performance against Brisbane last year:

“I just showed myself and I think I showed a few others that I can stand up to the good players and the good teams out there and was just building confidence off that. And I really took that in my stride over the offseason and I use it as motivation to be the best I can be.

“I think obviously that game was one of the best I've played ever so it's probably hard to replicate that every single game but in terms of the mindset and what I did before the game, I tried to emulate that within the first couple of games this season.

“Within the club, I had a really strong role and what I needed to do was very simple. The coaches were very, very eager to make the game plan simple for me and I think that simplicity of my role, and that team first mentality created, I just played on natural instinct really.”

Ollie Lord on reports linking him to other clubs before he signed a contract extension in the off-season:

“I think whenever your name gets thrown up in other teams talks in discussions it was definitely flattering but I never turned my head at all. I thought my careers now at Port and I’m really happy with how I'm going here and the group, the upward trajectory so as much as it was flattering I never (thought about it).

Ollie Lord on Mitch Georgiades’ return following his long-term knee injury:

“It was really good to see him play against them some competition other than us a couple of weeks ago and against the Crows. He had a really strong output and we know what when Mitch is up and firing what he can do for our team. And I think it only adds to the healthy competition for spots, but I’m really happy that Mitch is up and going and looking forward to seeing him playing some footy this year.”

Ollie Lord on what he has learned from recent Match Review Officer rulings around head high contact and bumping:

“I think clearly now that we just can't have that in our game anymore and we've spoken about it during the course of last year and even more over the last couple of weeks, especially with Pep’s incident, there's no room for the bump anymore. We speak about it quite often, not in terms of practicing out there but I think it's common knowledge now that if you elect a bump and you're causing too much danger to the opposition, you’ve got to rub it out.”

Ollie Lord on Zak Butters’ chances of playing in Round One after being cleared of any structural damage to his ankle:

“We all know Zak - he's a very strong, tough player so I never really had a thought that he was going to miss out on round one. But I guess the relief is that there's no injury and no structural damage there so I'm looking forward to seeing him lace the boots up in round one against West Coast.”