Port Adelaide and Adelaide Crows name strong line-ups for their pre-season Showdown in Port Pirie

Port Adelaide will start its 2019 AFL pre-season campaign against Adelaide with just one captain, Tom Jonas, on the field as both sides named strong line-ups for the match in Port Pirie. See the teams here.

Crows specialist forward Eddie Betts, middle, and fellow AFL veteran Richard Douglas, right, will be part of a strong Adelaide line-up for the Summer Showdown with Port Adelaide at Memorial Oval at Port Pirie on Saturday. Picture: Morgan Sette

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Tom Jonas will start a new era at Port Adelaide as a solo captain - and without his two colleagues from the new-look Power leadership team - in a hot Summer Showdown 15 at Port Pirie on Saturday.

Jonas, the first co-captain in Port Adelaide’s 149-year story, will keep his No. 42 jumper as fellow co-skipper Ollie Wines (shoulder) and new vice-captain Hamish Hartlett (knee) sit out the JLT Community pre-season clash with Adelaide.

Both the Power and the Crows have named strong line-ups for their first of two pre-season games.

Crows specialist forward Eddie Betts, middle, and fellow AFL veteran Richard Douglas, right, will be part of a strong Adelaide line-up for the Summer Showdown with Port Adelaide at Memorial Oval at Port Pirie on Saturday. Picture: Morgan Sette

Port Adelaide will introduce West Coast premiership ruckman Scott Lycett and Hawthorn recruit Ryan Burton for their first official games for the Power. Lycett is named to lead the ruck in a rotation with Patrick Ryder; Burton is named on a half-back flank.

Coach Ken Hinkley has called up all three of the Power’s highly regarded first-round draftees Connor Rozee (pick No. 5), Xavier Duursma (No. 15) and Zack Butters (No. 12).

The Crows have shown the same confidence in recent first-round draftee Chayce Jones (draft pick No. 9) while holding Ned McHenry (No. 12) to the four-man emergency list.

Each team can work eight players from the interchange bench, although Port Adelaide had asked for even more to deal with the scorching conditions at Port Pirie.

The Power has confirmed All-Australian midfielder-forward Robbie Gray as a starter after corrective surgery to a knee during the summer.

Adelaide has named second-year forward Darcy Fogarty to start in a forward pocket in an attack built around co-captain Taylor Walker, Josh Jenkins and Tom Lynch.

Summer Showdown 15 will be played to the hottest weather conditions ever put before the Crows and Power with the forecast lifting the temperature prediction from 39 to 41C.

The AFL will have its heat policy in place. This ensures longer breaks between quarters. Adelaide’s wish for “drinks breaks” midway through each term has been denied by AFL House.

Scott Thompson watches Scott Lycett at Port training. The ruckman will make his Power debut in Port Pirie. Picture Sarah Reed

Power newcomer Ryan Burton tackles Patrick Wilson of the Crows during the Under 23 trial at Thebarton Oval on Saturday. Picture: AAP/Mark Brake

However, the league will allow the Crows and Power to send their water carriers onto the field at any time. This is a break from new AFL rule that in Season 2019 will ban all drink stewards and runners from the field until after a goal is scored.

Port Adelaide’s wish for a shortened match has been blocked. Adelaide sought for the length of the game to remain unchanged because of the Crows fitness staff having predetermined the game time - the so-called “loading” - for each player in their structured pre-season program.

Port Adelaide and the Crows are still waiting for the AFL to declare if there will be “cool rooms” - refrigerated blocks - in which the players can seek relief from the heat during the quarter breaks.

There also is the question of the AFL supplying mist fans to cool the players who are on the interchange benches.

JLT SHOWDOWN SQUADS

Adelaide v Port Adelaide

Memorial Oval, Port Pirie

3.40pm Saturday

CROWS

B: Keath (42), Otten (22), Kelly (8)

HB: Seedsman (11, Laird (29), Milera (30)

C: Smith (33), M. Crouch (5), Knight (3)

HF: Betts (18), Lynch (27), Douglas (26)

F: Fogarty (32), Jenkins (4), Walker (13)

1R: Jacobs (24), Sloane (9), Ellis-Yolmen (28)

Int: Hartigan (15), Doedee (39), Atkins (21}, O’Brien (43), Poholke (10), B. Crouch (2), Murphy (44), Jones (20).

POWER

B: Howard (32), Clurey (17), Houston (43)

HB: Burton (3), Jonas (42), Byrne-Jones (33)

C: Motlop (6), Rockliff (11), Westhoff (39)

HF: Boak (10), Watts (23), Ebert (7)

F: R. Gray (9), Ryder (4), S. Gray (46)

1R: Lycett (29), S. Powell-Pepper (2), Drew (28)

Int: Butters (18), Duursma (21), Lienert (4), Bonner (26), Mayes (34), Marshall (13), Rozee (20), Amon (15).

TV: Fox Footy Channel and Kayo, live