SATURDAY’s practice game against Adelaide may be purely a trial, but there is plenty on the line for Port Adelaide according to football boss Chris Davies.
The sides will meet in a double header featuring SANFL and AFL players at Alberton starting at 8:30am.
Port Adelaide has named two strong 26-man sides to tackle the Crows and while carrying out team plans and game style will be important, General Manager – Football, Chris Davies says getting results will be firmly in the minds of the players.
“The guys have got enough pride in their performance to want to win at any point in time,” he told media at a press conference on Friday.
“The performance is going to be more important than the outcome but I can’t imagine anyone who has got a competitive bone is not going to want to put one over the mob down the road.”
As well as the result, there will also be a selection squeeze for next week’s re-match in the AAMI Community Series at Noarlunga.
Davies explained that captain Tom Jonas (managed), forward Robbie Gray (lip) and midfielder Sam Powell-Pepper (hand) would not play on Saturday morning, giving others a shot to impress the coaches as they get closer to settling on the line-up for the Round 1 game against North Melbourne in about three weeks.
“They’ve got to work out how they want to select the team; how many defenders they want in the team, how many mids,” he said.
“I don’t think that’s definitely shored up yet, so the next two games there’s certainly some pressure to get things right.
“The people who represent us tomorrow in the AFL trial know they’ve got a job to do.
“26 players doesn’t go into 22 so some decisions are going to have to be made and you’d suggest that Jonas is going to come back in when he’s right.
“We think pressure on spots is a great thing for our club.”
Given the larger squads for the games, player minutes will be managed and there will be some players rotated through different positions.
It will be the first opportunity to see draftee Lachie Jones and second-year players Miles Bergman and Mitch Georgiades all in the team together and Davies said it showed the coaches were prepared to give young players an opportunity.
“We want to see a number of players in different spots this weekend with a view to playing what will be closer to our 22 against Adelaide in the AAMI Community Series game,” he said.
“We’ve got Lachie Jones playing, we’ve got Miles Bergman playing, we’ve got Mitch Georgiades who’ll be out there so for us getting Lachie into the team and a game early on is fantastic.
“We picked him early and there’s no reason he shouldn’t be out playing right now.”
The SANFL hit-out will be played across four flat 25-minute quarters and the later game will be four flat 30-minute quarters.
Saturday’s games will be live streamed from 8:30am and 11:00am respectively via portadelaidefc.com.au or the Official Port Adelaide mobile app.
