Three changes ahead of Essendon clash

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See the full line-ups for both sides at the bottom of the article



Defender Jacob Surjan is out due to a strained glute/hamstring, while Ben Jacobs has been omitted and will play with Port Adelaide in the SANFL.

Thomas missed the Power’s losses to Geelong and Adelaide after being penalised for a collision with Bulldog Tom Liberatore in the Round 12.

[ Enemy Lines: It starts with defence ]

Port Adelaide general manager football Peter Rohde said Thomas was an important inclusion who would play forward but also more in a midfield which is without some regular faces.

“He was in pretty good form before he went out,” Rohde said.

“He’s been playing as a forward but a little bit in the midfield as well. Now with a few of the midfielders missing he’ll probably play 50-50 forward and in the midfield.”

Thomas has played in each of the Power’s four wins in 2012, and has been noted for his role as a defensive forward.

“He brings the competitiveness, the tackling and he’s kicked a few goals for us,” Rohde said.

“He certainly holds the ball in the forward line and is very good around the stoppages in the midfield and forward.”

Butcher has had a frustrating 2012 and again finds himself out with injury after returning for last week’s match.

Daniel Stewart is the Power’s replacement forward and he should have more opportunities than in his previous seven games in 2012, when he’s competed alongside Jay Schulz and Justin Westhoff.

“We think that in the past when he’s come in, he’s been the second ruck,” Rohde said.

“Whereas this week we’ve got two rucks in the team plus him, so it’ll let him to play as a forward where he probably plays his best footy.

“He’s been in the team with Schulz as well as Westy in the past and he probably hasn’t had a lot of ball kicked to him, so this gives him the chance to be the main man.”

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After being dominated in ruck during Balfours Showdown XXXIII, the Power will pit two ruckmen against the Bombers.

“Essendon have played three rucks at times, so we’ll just wait and see,” Rohde said.

“We think we need to have the two rucks against this team. Obviously last week, we went with one and it didn’t work so we’re keen to get the two out there.”

Jacobs finds himself back at SANFL level for the first time in 2012, but with 26 AFL games under his belt within his first two years at the elite level.

“We think Ben’s a bit down on confidence and form in the past few weeks,” Rohde said.

“We’ll take a bit of pressure off of him and send him back to the SANFL and get his form back up by the end of the season and get him back in the side.

“He’s certainly showed some improvement this year and we think that with another pre-season he’ll be a regular player with us by the start of next year. That’s certainly not to say he won’t play again this year.

“He’s been sub and we’ve taken him off. He probably just needs a good four-quarter hit-out and probably play in a set position because we’ve had to move him about a bit.”

Port Adelaide was beaten by Essendon by 25 points in Round 2 at Etihad Stadium.

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This is Essendon’s first trip to AAMI Stadium to take on the Power since Round 1 2009. The Power has a good home record against the Bombers, having won eight of their 10 clashes at West Lakes.

Essendon comes to Adelaide off the back of a 71-point loss to St Kilda, but still sitting sixth on the ladder with a 10-4 win-loss record.

“We think we match up pretty well against them. Watson and Stanton and those guys are very important to them.

“They rebound the ball as well as anybody in the competition, so making sure they don’t rebound the ball out of our forward 50 is going to be very important.”

Port Adelaide is making the most of a full training week in a bid to correct turnovers that proved costly against Adelaide last Saturday night.

“We’ve had seven-day week when leading up to last week we only had six days between Geelong and Adelaide, and we probably couldn’t do a lot of training,” Rohde said.

“Having the full seven days on the track this week has given us more time. And the only real way to turn around the skill error stuff is to work on them at training.”

Port Adelaide and Essendon clash at AAMI Stadium from 1.40pm on Saturday.