UPDATE
Port Adelaide has confirmed the signing of Sam Skinner as a free agent for the 2022 season.
“We like Sam’s athleticism, aggression and competitiveness and while he has shown an ability to play at either end of the ground, we see him playing mostly in the backline, where he performed strongly with South Adelaide in the back half of the 2021 season,” list manager Jason Cripps said in a statement released by the club.
“Sam has shown great character and resilience to come back from three ACL injuries and we look forward to him taking his opportunity at the Port Adelaide Football Club.”
Skinner added: “It means everything to get this chance. My partner and I moved to Adelaide to play in the SANFL to try and get another crack at it.
“It was a big thing to pack our things up and move across after South Adelaide gave me a chance, so it means the world to both of us and my family to get that call today that Port Adelaide is willing to give me a chance.
“When I finished up at Brisbane, I felt like I still had a lot to give and I aspired to get back on an AFL list so to get an opportunity to do that, I’m just really keen to get cracking.”
EARLIER
Kane Cornes believes Sam Skinner will find a new home at Port Adelaide in 2022.
Skinner, 24, played with South Adelaide in the SANFL in 2021 after spending a couple of months training at North Melbourne in the first half of the year.
The Gippsland Power product, who was drafted by the Brisbane Lions in 2015, has had to deal with three knee reconstructions already in his career but could be back in the AFL system after one year out having been delisted at the end of 2020.
“We spoke about Port Adelaide and their interest in signing a delisted free agent,” Cornes said on SEN SA Breakfast.
“He’s not delisted this year from an AFL club, but of course spent some time at the Brisbane Lions.
“He’ll be at Port Adelaide next year.
“In terms of a positional need for what Port Adelaide need, he’s the right one at 198 centimetres. That’s a big, key defender, that’s not your Trent McKenzie or Tom Clurey (size), that’s a big, giant of a defender and a good size.
“So Sam Skinner making his way to Port Adelaide.”
Cornes’ co-host Andrew Hayes is a keen SANFL watcher and believes Skinner has the attributes to play as a key defender in the AFL after performing well for the Panthers primarily in defence.
“He started forward then was switched back into defence and could absolutely play back at the highest level,” Hayes said.
“It would seem as well that he’s another South Adelaide product who finds himself back in the system which is great.
“If Sam Skinner does find himself on a list really soon, it is a good advertisement for the SANFL as well.
“He was very open about, ‘I was in the system, I want to get back in there, I’ll go to what’s perceived as the second best competition in the country, I’ll go there and play for a year and I’ll be under the nose of a bunch of scouts’.
“He was very, very good in the finals series where a lot of recruiters were watching.”
Skinner played three games for the Lions, debuting in 2017 before adding two more games to his tally in 2020.
He was initially drafted as a defender, but spent time as a forward following his knee injuries which all came by the time he was 20.