THREE forced changes have been made to Port Adelaide’s side to play Western Bulldogs at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday afternoon.

Hamish Hartlett has been withdrawn from the team with an ankle injury sustained against the Swans last week.

He is the fourth player to be stricken by an ankle injury in as many weeks and will be replaced in an injury-related straight-swap by Jared Polec, who has recovered from a similar problem.

"It's almost ankle for ankle, one's had his week off and will hopefully have a significant impact, but we'll miss having Hamish in the team," senior coach Ken Hinkley told portadelaidefc.com.au.

But he isn’t the only one who will miss Saturday’s clash with the Bulldogs.

Former captain Dom Cassisi and NAB Rising Star nominee Jarman Impey have both been sidelined by respective knee and general soreness issues.

They make way for Tom Logan – who will play his first AFL game for 2014 after 10 consistent performances for the Magpies in the SANFL – and Sam Gray.

"Sam has been in really good form, unfortunately for him the personnel coming in have forced him out at times this year and Tommy Logan couldn't have been in better form, there are few more worthy or deserving players who could have their first game of the year.

"I'm sure both will live up to their opportunities as best they can.

"Jarman has been doing an enormous amount of work as a first year player and eventually that catches up to you.

"We know Dom is a battle-scarred warrior who is always going to have these little issues with his body, and he knows that he's at a stage of his career when he needs to be in his best physical shape to perform at his best."

The Western Bulldogs are looking to extend their winning streak over the Power to eight consecutive victories this weekend and Ken HInkley is expecting a typically hard and contested battle.

"We know we're going to get a really tough, hard, contested game of football knowing Macca [Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney] really well," Hinkley said.

"They're a really well-drilled team, we need to turn up and play the type of football Port Adelaide plays, and we need to try and stay true to that.

"We weren't happy that we lost to Sydney last week, and we knew that if we had been able to play the way we wanted right throughout the game, we could have got the result we wanted.

"It's important we do that."

The elevation of Gray and Logan into the Power team, plus the suspension of Daniel Flynn for two weeks, gives the opportunity for in-form Academy players to vie for the final places in the Magpies League lineup.