Port Adelaide assistant coach Darren Reeves says several selection decisions remain open ahead of Round 1, with strong pre-season performances creating healthy competition within the side. 

Speaking to media at Alberton, Reeves also discussed the evolving forward line mix, the role of Jason Horne-Francis, the fitness of Jack Lukosius, and the form of several players pushing for selection as the Power prepares for its season opener against North Melbourne at Marvel.  

Reeves on if Round 1 selection is locked in 

“No, I think there's still a bit of work to do. We’ve had our main session for the week, and tomorrow we will have a bit of match simulation, so there's still a bit to play out, which is a great place to be. I think we've had some good opportunities over the last couple of weeks to have a look at some different combinations in both trial games, but there's certainly some things to play out still.” 

Reeves on if Jason Horne-Francis will retain his position in the forward line 

“Yeah, I think so. We showed on the weekend that he spent most of the game forward, and he still had a little bit of time through the midfield at different times, and we'll certainly be looking to do that in the first part of the season. We want to look after him from a health perspective - he's so important to us, and if we can help build him up by playing him forward, and he's certainly really dangerous forward, I'm more than happy to have him as a forward line coach, but he'll certainly get some time through the midfield as well.”

Reeves on the forward line mix 

“I think he's (Jason Horne Francis) really flexible - he can play multiple roles up there. He's certainly a difficult matchup, whether he's playing up the ground or deep, so it might depend on the match up when he's forward on what it looks like for us and might depend on the match up that Mitch has got as well. We'll see how it plays out. Tomorrow is important for us from a training perspective, and we'll probably have a bit of a clearer picture in our own mind as a coaching group after that.” 

“I think there's real flexibility with all our mids to be able to play sort of half back and come forward if they need to. So that's a nice place to be. Miles (Bergman) had a little bit of time forward through preseason, and I'm sure we'll keep exploring that. We saw on the weekend, Jason and Zak (Butters) swapping at different times during the game - there's some nice flexibility with those guys.” 

Reeves on Jack Lukosius’ expected return from injury 

“He’s obviously been a bit sore since the Adelaide game, and he's had to work through a bit of rehab over the last couple of weeks. He's fit to train tomorrow, so he's done his work and is ready to go and train. He will look to get through that session, and we'll see how he pulls up out of that and make some decisions from there. We're not going to risk anyone, and Jack's obviously missed some time and hasn't had the workload over the last couple of weeks, so they've (the high-performance team) sort of been able to build him up off legs as much as possible, but it's not the same. He'll need to get through a fair chunk of training tomorrow and then pull up really well. It's so early in the season, we're not going to risk key players this early. So, if he's fit and healthy and gets through tomorrow and gets through the training early in the week, he'll certainly put his name up for selection, but we'll wait until we get to that point.” 

Reeves on Ollie Lord and Jack Whitlock’s form leading into Round 1 

“They've both been equally impressive and play slightly different roles. Jack (Whitlock) obviously was behind the eight ball a little bit a few weeks ago, but he's had a really good month and played really well in both role games. And Ollie (Lord) just continues to play his role really well. So again, there's a fair bit to play out there, and that forward line mix was impressive on the weekend, so we'll see how that lands.” 

Reeves on Corey Durdin’s limited minutes against West Coast in the AAMI Community Series 

“I think more than anything we were playing around with the new 23rd man scenario. Obviously, with the extra rotation and the rotation numbers staying at 75 you can't just roll five rotations through because you're burning your rotations too quickly, or you're having people sitting on the bench for too long. So, like everyone else, we’re just playing around with how that looks. And on the weekend, we went down that track where we held Corey (Durdin) back a little bit, but he certainly provided us with great energy in the second half. We'll see how that plays out.” 

Reeves on his takeaways from the Swans’ opening round win against Carlton 

“Absolutely, we’re going to look at everyone and what everyone's doing, and we've got our own ideas, and we've had a lot of discussion around what that might look like. It was interesting to see what they did with (Tom) Papley last night, and it was a little bit similar to what we did with Corey (Durdin) last week. We'll just see where it lands, what's best for us, and what we need going into Round 1.” 

Reeves on the noticeable change to how the club is structuring the traditional Captain’s Run 

“That’s certainly a little change that we made. We did it last week, and it was a reasonably short, sharp, intense session last Saturday, and the guys felt like they had some good energy going into the game. So it's certainly something we'll continue to play around with. This week's just been sort of building up to another game day scenario tomorrow for us and try and keep it as normal as possible. So today was again a little bit of a Captain's Run per se, it was a short, sharp, intense hit out which was positive.” 

Reeves on managing training intensity at this time of year 

“They compete so hard every moment. We need to do it (match simulations), and we need to keep ticking that off. Your heart is in the mouth at different times, but we get through it.” 

Reeves on Mitch Georgiades’ leadership in the forward line 

“I mean, that was probably one of the challenges I put to Mitch (Georgiades) and to Darcy Byrne-Jones as the more senior guys of our forward line group, and Sam (Powell-Pepper), obviously he's missing at the moment with injury. But Mitch has grabbed hold of that and has certainly led the way. He just wants to be the best player he can possibly be, so he drives standards by the way he goes about his work. He does that every session, and that's what the best do, and he's been able to do that really strongly through preseason, and the young guys jump on board, which is exciting.” 

Reeves on Tom Cochrane’s return from injury 

“We're all excited about Tommy (Cochrane), and it was a disappointment when he got injured, but he's been really diligent with his rehab, and he's worked really hard over the last couple of weeks - he looks fit. I caught up with him for a coffee this morning, and he looks fit and he's energized and ready to go. We're sort of having to hold him back a little bit, to be honest. So, it'll be exciting to see him back into training over the next week or two.” 

Reeves on supplemental selection period signings Mitch Zadow and Balyn O’Brien 

“Mitch rocked up here at the start with the attitude in mind about getting better every moment. And he's gone about that, and that doesn't change (now he’s on the list). He got a bit of a taste of it on Sunday, which was great for him, and he's got attributes that are going to be really exciting moving forward. He's just one of those characters that we know is just going to turn up every day and get to work. And then with Balyn, he’s the same.” 

Reeves on the side’s Saturday hit out 

“We've got a couple of 20 or 25 minute blocks with some other stuff in between that, we're sort of guided by the high-performance guys in that space - they can tell us how many minutes we get, and we work with that.”