Port Adelaide backs kids to flourish in baptism of fire against Demons at the MCG

Michael Voss has backed Port Adelaide’s debutant kids to prosper — not flounder — in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the MCG against Melbourne on Saturday.

Port Adelaide midfielder Willem Drew will play his first AFL game against Melbourne. Picture: SARAH REED.

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MICHAEL Voss has backed Port Adelaide’s debutant kids to prosper — not flounder — in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the MCG against Melbourne on Saturday.

The Power will hand AFL debuts to four players — last year’s first-round draft picks Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Xavier Duursma and 2016 second-round pick Willem Drew — while West Coast premiership ruckman Scott Lycett and former Hawthorn Rising Star runner-up Ryan Burton will play their first games for the club.

Most attention will focus on the AFL debutants, who will be thrown into the MCG cauldron against flag fancy Melbourne first up.

“It's a step up, round one is the grand final of the home-and-away season,’’ senior assistant coach Voss said.

“It gets built up really big, the intensity goes to another level. It’s one thing to play JLT (pre-season games) but once you click over to the main season there is something different about it.

“They can expect an increase in intensity but we’ve seen enough from them over the pre-season to be fairly well educated that they will handle it pretty well.

“We don’t form a view on one particular day, we form a view over pre-season and the mental aptitude to be able to play the game is obviously a critical factor and they handle the game really wel.

“If anything, we think they will thrive (under pressure).’’

Power’s Willem Drew in action against North Melbourne at Alberton Oval. Picture Sarah Reed.

The last club to play four debutants and win was Port in round one, 2010 at Football Park.

It beat North Melbourne by 14 points, with Jackson Trengove, Andrew Moore, Mitchell Banner and Cameron Hitchcock playing their first games.

None of them are still at the Power.

Butters and Duursma are 18, Rozee 19 and big-bodied midfielder Drew — a replacement for injured co-captain Ollie Wines — is 20.

Voss said the quartet brought great enthusiasm to a team which is trying to reinvent itself through youth and a fast, exciting game style after a late-season collapse last year, which saw it finish 10th, on the back of a slow, cumbersome game plan.

“It’s pretty high,’’ Voss said of the enthusiasm level and want to play exciting footy.

“We promised a different look about us in 2019 and that (promoting the kids) just goes someway to saying how committed we are to ensuring that it happens, not just the way we want to play but with the personnel that we have.

“What Port fans have seen in the pre-season is a quicker ball movement team, hopefully we are a bit more aggressive with the way we set up the field and we need to be strong in the contest.

“Port fans have probably seen little bits and pieces of that, there has certainly been some evidence of that throughout what we’ve done over the JLT but we want that evidence to be overwhelming.

“To do that, we’ve got to play well when it really counts.’’