Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes believes Mitch Georgiades could serve a purpose for Ken Hinkley if redeployed across half-back.
The 20-year-old forward was omitted from Port’s senior side prior to the Round 11 win over Essendon, also missing last weekend’s loss to Richmond.
Georgaides kicked four goals and took eight marks for the Magpies in the SANFL, putting his name back in front of Hinkley ahead of Saturday’s crunch clash with Sydney.
But with Todd Marshall leading the forward line and Charlie Dixon and Jeremy Finlayson rotating in attack and in the ruck, could Georgiades head down back?
Cornes floated the idea, referencing how well it has worked for Harry Himmelberg at GWS in the last few weeks.
“I was watching Himmelberg from the Giants on the weekend. He made a move from forward to back,” he said on SEN SA Breakfast.
“He was struggling forward, Mark McVeigh comes in as coach and moves him back.
“Mitch Georgiades is too good to be playing SANFL. At the moment he is not going to find himself in the forward line unless they drop Finlayson and bring the youngster Brynn Teakle in as the ruckman, which they are considering.
“Why not have a go at Mitch Georgiades across half-back?
“You’re clearly not going to drop Dixon, Todd Marshall picks himself, and then you’ve got Finlayson doing the ruck work.
“I’d be playing him back. They need some key position support down back. He’s got the athleticism, the marking ability and the ball use to go and explore that.
“In the back half of the year when Port Adelaide clearly aren’t going to make finals, I think it is a good opportunity to explore some shifts.
“Mitch Georgiades would be, I think, an excellent defender.”
Cornes’ co-host and four-time SANFL premiership defender Andrew Hayes isn’t quite on the same page, suggesting it might just be too risky, especially with the 12th-placed Power still in the finals hunt.
“I just think it would be too big of a risk,” he said.
“There’s no doubt Port Adelaide would still say we’re absolutely a chance to make the finals and the next three weeks are going to be critical.
“Is it too big a risk to try someone in a new position? On top of that, why can’t he play in the forward line?
“There’ll only ever be three forwards playing in the forward line if they keep going with this ruck setup because either Charlie Dixon or Jeremy Finlayson will be in the middle.”
Cornes added: “I don’t think it’s that big a risk and we’ve seen how it’s worked for the Giants and Himmelberg.
“If you don’t have the opportunity to explore it, you’ll never ever know.”
Power assistant coach Tyson Goldsack also commented on Georgiades, who has kicked 50 goals in 38 AFL matches after debuting in 2020.
He says he has the attributes to play down back, but just cannot see where he fits in.
“He moves well enough, he reads the ball fairly well,” he said.
“We’ve got some pretty elite users on our half-back line. He’s not going to take a Ryan Burton spot, Darcy Byrne-Jones or Dan Houston. We’re pretty stocked there.
“Up front, we could use a little bit more run higher up the ground to connect our backline to our midfield and forwards.
“He might find himself playing a little bit more higher in a forward line, rather than just deep and in the 50.
“He performed really well on the weekend, took his chances and is probably just a little bit too classy for that level.
“We’d like to squeeze him in and get more games into a young player like that.”
The 5-7 Power host the seventh-placed Swans (8-4) at the Adelaide Oval this Saturday afternoon.