Port Adelaide senior coach Josh Carr said the opportunity for his young side against the best team in the competition is something they’re looking forward to. 

With six changes to the team ahead of Saturday’s Fremantle clash, Carr has added 19-year-old debutant Balyn O’Brien to the side. 

Speaking to the Adelaide media on Friday, Carr discussed the challenge ahead, the midfield balance and the season so far. 

Carr on Lachie Jones and Kane Farrell 
“Yeah, Lachie will play. Had a nice little fitness test before, and he's pretty excited about getting out there. Faz isn't going to play. Not sure what it will look like for the rest of the year, at this stage, it's probably unlikely that he will play again this year. We've been chasing our tail a bit with it, and where we sit right now, we’ve just got to give the time to try and get it right. It's like a osteitis pubis sort of scenario with him, and he just gets to a certain point and doesn't have any power. And we've tried obviously over the last few weeks to get that right, but at this stage it's not looking that great for the rest of the year. 

“We obviously need to do a bit more exploration with it to see what we have to do to get it right. But he's had a fair bit of time off over the last eight to 10 weeks, and hasn't really got that much better. So, we’ll put him on ice for a bit. Rammy's (Harrison Ramm) going to play. We just feel like we need a bit of height in our back six, back seven with their forwards group. So we've gone with Rammy.” 

Carr on Fremantle’s forward line 
“They’ve had a great year and playing some pretty good football. Pretty excited by the opportunity for us as a group. If they get the supply down there, then it's obviously hard to defend. Doesn't matter what team they're up against. They're a good forward line. So the importance of the contest around the footy and clearances, and making sure we're getting it in our front half to give our guys a bit of supply is going to be important.” 

Carr on going into games as underdogs 
“I think we're a football club that's always loved that sort of challenge. Now you don't want to be in that position too often, where you're the underdog. You'd probably prefer to be the other way around. But we've spoken a lot this week and about the opportunity that we do get to play against a really good team, organised, good in in all phases of the game. We have to make the most of our chances with the footy in hand, for sure. 

“We can't do anything about the noise. That's there, and we are playing the best team in the competition right now. So that's real. We don't shy away from the fact that we're playing a really good team. There's just so much opportunity for us as a group, whether it's individually or collectively as a group, the opportunity to play against some really good players, understand how they go about it. We're not here to make up the numbers for this weekend. We’re here to win games of footy. So our jobs as coaches and players is always to look at why you can you can win a game like this if you get these areas right, and that's clear for us every week. If we get certain areas right in our game, then we give ourselves a chance to walk away with a with a win.” 

Carr on Balyn O’Brien’s debut 
“Since the first moment he walked into the club, there's no complaining. He goes about his business. He's a farmer. He just goes and gets his hands and knees dirty. And we love the way that he plays footy. We love the contest that he provides, and never give up attitude. If could do a comparison, I'd say a young Tom Jonas is what I see in him, and that's what we love about him.” 

Carr on Todd Marshall leading the forward line this weekend 
“Individually, that’s the opportunity that Todd gets. Mitch isn't there. Todd gets to lead those guys, Whitters (Jack Whitlock) and Viz (Dante Visentini) and the rest of the forwards group. It's a great opportunity for Todd. Todd's worked really hard on his game over the last month, whether that's in game with the Maggies, but away from it, on his running and getting fitter. And I think visually he looks better, so I think he's ready.” 

Carr on the midfield mix  
“It's about the mix and we just feel like in our midfield, we've got to be careful that we've got the balance right in there for inside players versus outside players. And obviously Bergman, he's going to come into to the midfield mix and he provides a big body, but he's powerful and he can explode out of the contest as well. So he comes in with confidence. He's been playing some really good football the last two weeks, and that's as a defender. So you could quite easily argue why would you move him, but I just feel right now it's an opportunity for him, but also for us to get him around the footy.” 

Carr on Zak Butters’ injury 
“We know what Zak's like. He's going to be doing everything he can to get back. Look, he's up against it. There's no doubt about it. Fingers crossed, he can do the rehab and get back as soon as he can. Timeline-wise, it's obviously going to be the back end of the season. It was a pretty significant syndesmosis. So four, five weeks you can look at that. But as I said, it's going to be a challenge (for him to get back this season). We do everything we can to get them back as quickly as we can. You obviously don't want to expose anyone to any extra risk, and that's no different with Zak.” 

Carr on injuries to his best players this year 
“It's footy, it's sport, it's contact sport, and it happens. And I always see a silver lining with it, with the players that you get to expose AFL footy and as a footy club to give those guys that opportunity, so it's no excuse for us, with wins and losses, it's just about us playing a brand of footy the right way.” 

Carr on the season so far 
“I like to think the exposure to a number of players, especially on the younger end, the games that those guys have got into themselves. We've had games where we've been so close and but missed out. The judgment of our season, I think it's been really positive this year with the footy that we’ve played. Yes, there's been a lot of disappointment along the way with missing those close games, but there's also been some excitement around the footy club with the young guys that are coming through and the brand of football that we're playing. To give ourselves a mark, it's not really how I measure it. I just measure about individual improvement, team improvement. Are we playing the right style of footy that's going to win big games? And I think we're getting there.” 

Carr on young guys coming in this weekend 
“For us, it's about the 23 that run out there playing the same way through the entire four quarters, not getting disappointed by mistake, not getting disappointed by a missed goal, helping each other through it. We understand what Fremantle are as a team, but the focus is more on us. If we can just keep playing our brand of footy and our style, then if we can make Freo play at 100% to win, then that's what we'll do.” 

Carr on the backline 
“You’ve got Aliir there, you’ve got Darcy there. There's a good mix of experience for those guys to support each other. What they've done in the past, there's pressure on the footy to make sure it's not coming down there easily and getting back and supporting those guys when it does get in there. It's no different than any area. We need each other, and we need to make sure we support that as a as a group.” 

Carr on Jase Burgoyne playing more midfield time 
“Yep, and Jase has been doing that over the last month. I did see people did think he tagged Nas (Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera) last week. He didn't tag Nas last week. He went into the midfield. That's what he's doing, exposure inside, his game day running is very good. He's at the top end of our players, so he gives us a good mix between that inside and wing mix.” 

Carr on having last year to prepare for the senior coach role 
“I think any opportunity you get to prepare for the job (is positive) and the length of time that I got, I couldn't be thankful enough to the footy club and Ken in particular to give me that that help and support and then allow me to be ready for this role and for what's to come. Anything you do probably doesn't prepare you for the injuries that we’ve got this week. But that's just all a part of it. You understand what football is and what it looks like. But for me and for the club to be able to prepare like that, I think was a positive.”