AFL news: All the Port Adelaide pre-season news and whispers
A Power draftee will be wiped out for a significant period after going under the knife, with the injury hampering him as a junior.
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Port Adelaide draftee Hugh Jackson is set to be sidelined until March while he recovers from surgery for a hip issue.
The injury hampered the 18-year-old midfielder late in the season and the Power received a medical report on it before selecting him with pick 55 in last week’s national draft.
Jackson, who has trained with Port Adelaide’s rehabilitation group since his first day at Alberton on Monday, will go under the knife on Tuesday.
“I’ll miss the majority of pre-season – I’ll be back out on the track maybe end of March, middle of March,” the North Adelaide product said.
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“I’m keen to get my body right and get back out on the track 100 per cent.
“Recovery is a lot of rehab in the gym, building up my core.
“They (the Power) knew and communicated with me quite well where my injuries and body was at.”
Jackson caught the eye early in the SANFL under-18 season with huge possession numbers before his form dropped away later in the year as he battled the hip complaint.
The lifelong Port Adelaide fan said hearing his name called while watching the draft with family was unforgettable.
“All emotions come flooding through,” he said.
“It was a great moment for me and my family, and I’m just grateful that Port Adelaide has given me the opportunity.
“To come to the club you’ve supported your whole life is really exciting.”
Jackson, who hailed from Crystal Brook in South Australia’s Mid-North, said it was surreal to now be training with coach Ken Hinkley and stars Robbie Gray and Travis Boak.
“Meeting Kenny was a big one for me, just because you’ve always seen him on TV,” he said.
“He’s happy I’m from the farm so he thought it was a bit easier to talk to me.”
Fellow draftee Dante Visentini said it had been a whirlwind week, going from thinking he would not be selected until the rookie draft to living with Power captain Tom Jonas.
“It was pretty crazy because I wasn’t expecting to go (in the national draft) but then I had some late calls from my manager,” the ruckman/forward said.
“Then when it happened my family erupted around me and house filled up with family and friends within a couple of minutes.”
Visentini was happy to have long-time teammate Josh Sinn also join the Power.
They went to school together at Xavier College, played juniors at Brighton Beach and lined up this year at the Sandringham Dragons.
Border ban leaves Power pair stuck in WA
— Simeon Thomas-Wilson
Port Adelaide will let young West Australian duo Mitch Georgiades and Jake Pasini remain in Perth until after the new year because of that state’s border restrictions.
The Power’s first to four year crop, as well as some senior players such as Travis Boak and Robbie Gray, have returned to pre-season training at Alberton this week.
Georgiades and Pasini, both 20, are still in Western Australia after they headed home in the off-season.
Western Australia this week imposed new border restrictions on South Australia, meaning if Georgiades and Pasini did return to Adelaide to be at Alberton for pre-season they would have to self-quarantine for 14 days if they wanted to go back to Perth for Christmas.
The Power has made the call for Georgiades and Pasini to remain in Perth until after January 1 and then return to South Australia.
The pair are following programs set for them by the Power and The Advertiser understands they have been training with a couple of WAFL clubs.
While Georgiades has impressed so far in his brief AFL career, finishing third in the 2021 Rising Star award, Pasini has had a tougher time.
The Covid pandemic meant Pasini didn’t have any SANFL to play in 2020, but the Power coaches were impressed enough by the rookie to give him a contract until the end of 2022.
Pasini has a strong pre-season in 2021 but then he dislocated his shoulder in a pre-season trial game.
He managed to play eight games for the Magpies in the SANFL.
The 192cm key defender looks set to return to the Power next month in solid shape with Georgiades posting an Instagram story of a noticeably bulked-up Pasini as they trained together in Perth.
While those two will remain and train together in Perth for the next couple of weeks, the rest of the Power’s playing group are expected to be back at Alberton next week.
YOUNG GUN HOPES TO BE MISSING PIECE FOR POWER
The freak injury that put him in intensive care and out of action for 12 weeks is causing him no issues for Jackson Mead, and Port Adelaide’s young gun is hoping he can be the answer to the Power’s most pressing need in 2022.
Mead, the son of inaugural Power best and fairest Darren, collapsed at his family’s house with a lacerated spleen in April after playing a SANFL game for the Magpies earlier in the day.
The 20-year-old had experienced stomach discomfort during the game and became dizzy when he got home.
He fainted and had to be taken to hospital, where he spent days in intensive care after he had bleeding from his spleen.
Mead couldn’t recall any incident in that game that may have caused the lacerated spleen, which kept him out of footy for 12 weeks.
“It was a bit of a scare to start with,” he said.
“I was stuck at home for a few hours in pain and then spent the next five or six nights in hospital. Missed 12 weeks, which was pretty daunting.”
As pre-season for the 2022 campaign kicked off on Monday he said he was determined to make up for lost time.
“I missed the 12 weeks last season because of the spleen and had no residual pain from it ever since,” he said.
“I’m just looking forward to getting back into pre-season and building for a good 2022.
“I want to take my fitness to another level. That’s one of the things that Ken (Hinkley) wanted me to do, so I’ve been working on that in the off-season.”
Mead did manage a game in last year’s pre-season series win against Adelaide at Noarlunga prior to his freak injury.
The Power are hoping to bolster their midfield depth in the wake of the preliminary final thrashing at the hands of the Western Bulldogs.
Mead said he hoped to be one of the players who can address this.
“Yeah, of course I want to be a player who can play alongside Trav (Travis Boak) and Ollie (Ollie Wines),” he said.
“I just need to play how I play … hopefully my ability is enough to get me into the team.” Boak and Robbie Gray joined their younger counterparts for day one of the Power’s 2022 pre-season campaign.
The Power’s first to four-year players returned to Alberton on Monday.
Among those out there were No. 12 draft pick Josh Sinn, and fellow Sandringham Dragons product Dante Visentini after they flew in from Melbourne to Adelaide on Sunday after being selected by the Power last week.
Kane Farrell was running after he tore his ACL last season, along with draftee Hugh Jackson who has battled a hip injury towards the end of this year.
The rest of the Power players are due at Alberton next week.
But Mitch Georgiades and Jake Pasini might be given until after Christmas after Western Australia imposed new border restrictions on South Australia.
Port guns return to training early
Port Adelaide veterans Travis Boak and Robbie Gray have joined their younger counterparts for day one of the Power’s 2022 pre-season campaign.
The Power kicked off their pre-season on Monday with the club’s first to four year players taking to the track at Alberton.
Among those out there were No. 12 draft pick Josh Sinn, and fellow Sandringham Dragons product Dante Visentini after they flew in from Melbourne to Adelaide on Sunday after being selected by the Power last week.
They were joined at Alberton by Boak and Gray, the two oldest players on the Power’s list at 32 and 33, respectively.
Other fifth year and over players taking to the track included Trent McKenzie and Dan Houston.
Sam Powell-Pepper, who was challenged by Power general manager football Chris Davies last month to prove he “has a proper commitment to play at AFL level”, was at training but he along with recently re-rookied Sam Mayes were down to return on day one.
Trent Dumont, given a lifeline by the Power as a rookie after he departed North Melbourne, was also out at Alberton.
Karl Amon ran laps early on in the session, as did Miles Bergman and Taj Schofield.
Kane Farrell was running after he tore his ACL last season, along with draftee Hugh Jackson who has battled a hip injury towards the end of this year.
The rest of the Power players are due at Alberton next week.
But Mitch Georgiades and Jake Pasini might be given until after Christmas after Western Australia imposed new border restrictions on South Australia.
Could this kid be the real headline act at Port?
Josh Sinn might be the headline act of Port Adelaide’s draft haul but he says Power fans should be very excited about fellow draftee Dante Visentini — labelling his recent development as “scary”.
The two Sandringham Dragons prospects arrived in Adelaide from Melbourne on Sunday after the Power selected them in last week’s draft — Sinn with pick 12 after a trade with the West Coast Eagles and Visentini at pick 56.
Providing they return negative Covid-19 tests after arriving in South Australia they can be at Alberton on Monday when Port Adelaide’s first to fourth year players return for pre-season training.
After the draft, Power recruiting manager Geoff Parker told The Advertiser Visentini, who stands at 201cm tall and can play forward and in the ruck, was a player Port had “high hopes for”.
“He’s an enthusiastic kid, he is great trainer and has a great work ethic,” he said.
“He already has some good solid ruck craft which we hope we can develop when he gets to us, he has good skills for a tall man and he has good running capacity.”
Sinn has played with Visentini for years in junior footy in Melbourne.
He said he was excited to see how the big man would improve in an AFL system.
“I’ve been playing junior football with Dante since I was 10 or 11-years-old so I know Dante very well,” he said on Grandstand SA.
“What you are going to get from Dante is 100 per cent effort, 100 per cent of the time.
“He is someone who also wears his heart on his sleeve and I think his aerial work is also something that has really impressed me over the past couple of years as he has developed.
“The scary thing is that talls do take a like bit of time to develop and with all the missing of games and training in Victoria and for him to develop so rapidly it is actually quite scary to see where he will head to.
“With AFL resources around him he is going to be an awesome player for the Power.”
Sinn and Visentini will share a house together this week upon arriving for Adelaide before Sinn likely moves in with reigning Brownlow medallist Ollie Wines until Christmas.
“It is a pretty surreal feeling if that does happen. I’m absolutely rapt to get that opportunity,” he said.
The Power traded up the order on Wednesday night to snare Sinn, jumping above Essendon in the process.
A pick before St Kilda took Glenelg wingman Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, prompting former Brownlow medallist Gerard Healy that they should have taken local boy Sinn.
Sinn said he wasn’t planning on going back to Melbourne anytime soon.
“Personally I’ve been a bit of a traditionalist in terms of footy history and the rich proud heritage of Port Adelaide has really sucked me in and it’s something that I’ve become really interested in,’ he said.
“I really want to get my Covid test done as quickly as possible so I can get in the club
“But outside of that I just want to really get to know the state, because I don’t want to be there for just the next two years I want to be there for a very long time.
“So I want to get used to being in a new state and being comfortable in my surroundings. It’s my new home from now on.”
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