Port Adelaide won the minor premiership in 2020 and came within a kick of making the Grand Final, but their list is unquestionably stronger this year.
The Power added Aliir Aliir and Orazio Fantasia via the trade period, with both impressing across the AAMI Community Series.
Aliir took 14 marks, six contested, while Fantasia kicked 3.3 despite only playing a half of footy.
Power coach Ken Hinkley explained the club’s mindset in targeting the duo in the trade period.
“There’s so many different things that make up why players become part of the opportunity,” Hinkley told SEN Breakfast.
“For us, once Aliir was mentioned we were pretty keen to follow through on it and get him to our club and we’ve certainly been able to do that, but you never quite know what the circumstances are for people and some of the challenges they faced.
“They were different from Orazio, Orazio was around wanting to come home to Adelaide and that was pretty obvious.
“And Aliir’s was a little bit more about his long-term future and the position we were looking to play him in and we were able to show him how he could bring some intercept and genuine excitement to our game and clearly on the weekend he showed that in spades.
“Orazio’s first half on the weekend was remarkable really. He could’ve had six or seven goals and he was just in the right spots at the right time.
“He certainly adds to our front half with the players we’ve got there at the moment.”
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However, Port Adelaide’s depth will also be bolstered by recent draft acquisitions.
The Power took Miles Bergman (pick 14), Dylan Williams (pick 23) and Jackson Mead (pick 25) in the 2019 National Draft and Hinkley expects the trio will have an impact this year.
“Because of COVID last year and what we all dealt with we had three young players who we drafted really highly and we never got to see them and that was Bergman, Dylan Williams and Jackson Mead who we thought was an end of first round pick so we’ve got three first rounders from last year who we haven’t played,” he said.
“Georgiadis is building his career and he’s got a lot of natural stuff and he’s got a lot of work to do on his craft, but he’ll be a really good player for a long period of time.
“Then we brought in Lachie Jones this year who played the second half on the weekend who’s strongly built and ready to play AFL football, but we’ve just got a few players in front of him at the moment.”
Hinkley added that he’s expecting to play two ruckmen in Round 1, with Scott Lycett and Peter Ladhams rotating in the role.
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