Port Adelaide captain Connor Rozee will mark his 150th AFL game this Friday night, as he also prepares to farewell teammate Travis Boak and senior coach Ken Hinkley. 

Rozee arrived at Alberton in the 2018 national draft, and in just his sixth year in the AFL system, was named captain following the retirement of Tom Jonas. 

Speaking with the Adelaide media on Monday, the 25-year-old covered a wide range of topics at the beginning of a huge week for the club. 

Rozee on playing his 150th game this week 
“It's come very quickly, to be honest, and I'm just very fortunate that I've landed at a club that has given me the opportunity to make my dream come true, and to play AFL football every week is something I'll be forever grateful for. So it'll be nice to have some friends and family there to celebrate that. But we've got some more important things going on this week.” 

Rozee on the week ahead 
“It's a massive week, clearly, not just with the one announcement, but with both of them (Ken Hinkley and Travis Boak). So yeah, we'll make sure that we touch on them throughout the week. We've got a few things planned, just to make sure that we show the gratitude that they deserve. They've both done so much for our football club over a long period of time. So it's important for us that we acknowledge them in the right way. And it'd be great to send them off with a win as well.” 

Rozee on Travis Boak 
“(He has helped me) in so many ways. To be honest, I could speak about it for a long time, but in the early days, especially, he was my mentor, I guess you could say. We got (paired up as) a young player with an older player, and he was my guy for a while. So we spent a bit of time together. You just learn so much when you spend time with a person with character like Trav. It's pretty clear that he's a person before a footballer and that's probably the main messaging that I've learnt along the way. It's probably helped me mature a lot quicker than I probably would have otherwise, and then clearly, when I stepped into captaincy, there's a lot of little things along the way that he's been able to give me pointers on. And again, he’s just an amazing human being, and has sacrificed so much for this football club, so we'll make sure we pay tribute to him this week.” 

Rozee on the importance of this week’s game 
“I mean, the game is clearly an important part of this week, and as I've touched on before, we'll pay tribute to them throughout this week and have a pretty emotional build up, I'm sure, with the season coming to an end. It's really important as a playing group, and while we probably don't have exactly everyone we would like to have out there, it's important for us that we have the right attitude and effort this week, and even if we don't come away with the four points that we come into the game with an attitude to just really get after it and make sure our effort’s there for sure.” 

Rozee on the slow start to the Carlton game 
“Yeah, we definitely had a slow start. They got on top of us in the midfield, centre bounce specifically. And it was probably a little too, little too late in the end, we fought back a little bit in the second half, but unfortunately, we just weren't able to stem the momentum quick enough. And they put us to the sword a bit.” 

Rozee on the plans in Ken’s last week 
“There's a few things that we'll do throughout this week as a playing group. We've organised a few things for Ken, I’ll keep them a little bit private, but again, it'll be really important for myself, personally, to make sure that we show gratitude as a whole playing group and a club.” 

Rozee on thinking about next year without Ken in charge 
“It's going to be a little bit strange for me. It's probably a little bit easier because I've had Carry (Josh Carr) as a coach before (at North Adelaide). Some of the guys that have been here for longer than I have, it's probably going to be a little bit more strange for them, especially most of them only having him as a coach, as I said. So yeah, there will be a fair bit of change with personnel around the football club, and that's exciting for us. We end a chapter and open a new one, which gives us a lot of excitement.” 

Rozee on fans showing gratitude for Ken 
“It's an emotional sport, especially being in Adelaide as a two team town, Ken cops the best and the worst of not just our fans, but fans in general. And he's just dealt with that so well along the journey. He's pretty used to it now. He's been copping a fair bit for a long time. So yeah, the mentor and the leader that he's been for our football club, it's really important that our fans, especially this week, just really get behind him and appreciate what he's done for our football club.” 

Rozee on his hand injury 
“I can't really do anything too major that'll affect me for next year. So that's the main reason that I've been able to play on…I just want to keep winning. I'm a competitive person, so if I can help the team, and Ken and the coaching group think that's best for the playing group, then I'll be out there.” 

Rozee on Ollie Wines’ suspension 
“Yeah, it's a tough one, really. Unfortunately, the player’s obviously come out with concussion, so that's something that the MRO take into account these days. It's important for the competition to acknowledge that they're trying to protect the head, and injuries are part of our sport. I'm not sure where that'll end up, or if he'll be able to get off or reduce his ban, but yeah, it's a bit unfortunate that he won’t be able to be out there this week at this stage. Ollie, out of everyone, would have loved to have been out there.” 

Rozee on learning as a leader when things are tough 
“(I learn) a lot more (when things are tough), to be completely honest, especially as a leader. Being a leader is quite easy, really when you're going well and winning, you don't have to change too much, and people are speaking positively about you. And the tough moments are when things aren't going well and you have to front up and acknowledge what you're not doing right and what you need to improve on. I'll just try and continue to learn and to try and be a better leader every year for this football club and try and get it where we want to go.”