PORT ADELAIDE defender Dougal Howard has put his hand up to play in the ruck if All-Australian Paddy Ryder can’t take his place against Collingwood on Saturday.

Ryder is in doubt for the clash against the Magpies at the MCG after missing much of the second half of the loss to West Coast last Saturday with a hip flexor injury.

Howard at 199 centimetres is one of the Power’s tallest and most versatile players, settling in defence in 2018 after starting as a forward.

Untried ruckman Billy Frampton was nominated by coach Ken Hinkley as the likely replacement for Ryder if he doesn’t play, but Howard says he would take on the role if asked.

“I think the word is that Bill’s pretty much ready to go, they’re waiting on Paddy,” Howard told Adelaide radio show Sportsday SA.

“But for me, I’ll talk to Kenny and if he needs me to go into the ruck and do a job for the team, I’m more than happy to do it.

“Hopefully Paddy can get through for another couple of weeks, we get another couple of wins and he can have a week off before the finals, but if not I’m sure Bill would be able to come in and do a job for us as well.”

Howard, who was last night named in the 40-man 22under22 squad nominated by the AFLPA, could also go forward to replace big man Charlie Dixon, who has been ruled out for the season after having surgery on a fractured fibula.

“I’m always in Kenny’s ear, I’d love to get back up there,” Howard said.

“In footy, you’re happy to go wherever the coach asks and if they need me up there as a tall target, I’d be more than happy to go.

“At the moment I would prefer to play back.

“I enjoy the boys back there with Tom Jonas, who is our leader and looks after us younger boys and it’s a really close group.

“In saying that though, I have missed kicking a couple of goals this year.”

Wherever he plays and regardless of who comes into the side to replace Dixon, the Power needs to find a way to increase its scoring.

While it has the second stingiest defence in the competition, behind only premiers Richmond, its attack ranks 13th, a fact very apparent to Howard.

“It is pretty frustrating not putting on big scores especially when we seem to be doing a lot of things right defensively,” he said.

“It’s just capitalising going inside 50, (on the weekend) we had plenty of possession, we owned the ball going forwards, we just didn’t get that final mark inside 50 and really finish it off.

“That’s been a big area all year and if we’re going to win the last two weeks and get into finals we’re definitely going to have to fix our execution going inside 50 to get shots on goal.”

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