Port Adelaide decide on whether it will wear its famous prison bar guernsey in Showdown 48
The lack of fans meant Port Adelaide investigated putting off wearing the prison bars guernsey in Showdown 48. But, Power chairman David Koch has made a call.
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There won’t be fans present to share it with, but Port Adelaide will don its historic prison bar guernsey in next weekend’s Showdown at Adelaide Oval.
The lack of fans for the Round 2 clash had resulted in Port debating whether it should hold off wearing its historic top, as part of its 150th year anniversary celebrations, for potentially later on in the year when crowds might be allowed back into games.
But chairman David Koch said fans had told the club they wanted the Power to be in black and white when they take on Adelaide next Saturday night
“We had always planned to wear it to open our 150th anniversary at home, and since the COVID shutdown we were assessing as to what that would mean for this game,” he said.
“We just checked ourselves to make sure that our people still wanted us to wear it in Round 2 despite the fact they couldn’t be there with us.
“It’s clear that our people want this guernsey worn in the Round 2 Showdown to celebrate our 150th anniversary, and as a club we could not agree more.”
On the track at Alberton Robbie Gray, Scott Lycett and Xavier Duursma could all return to full group contact training on Saturday, as Port Adelaide senior assistant coach Michael Voss says he understands why Mick Malthouse labelled the Power as a “tease”.
The Power went through a bruising full group contact training session at Alberton on Wednesday.
Defender Riley Bonner was in some serious pain after hurting his lower leg during contact play and left the training track.
Jack Watts had to have a finger popped back into place, while captain Tom Jonas also required attention.
Voss said it was a challenge with the limited amount of full group contact training sessions allowed.
“Training becomes extremely urgent now,” he said.
“We’ve only got probably three team training sessions (remaining) where we are all together so each of those training sessions becomes incredibly important.
“How do we build that synergy again? We felt like we were in a really strong place before we left.”
Key forward Charlie Dixon was not sighted at Alberton, with Voss saying he was being managed and would be back out on the training track come Saturday for the Power’s next full group session.
He could be joined by three vital players in Port’s best 22, who have been training away from the main group so far in footy’s return.
“Scotty (Lycett) is progressing really well, we actually hope he will be rolling around the training ground on Saturday,” Voss said.
“Yeah same (on Duursma) Saturday, and I’m also hoping Robbie will be able to return.”
Legendary coach Mick Malthouse earlier this week labelled Port as a “tease” after the Power started the last two seasons promisingly only to fall away and finish 10th.
Voss said players and coaches understood they needed to work on consistency.
“That’s the reputation that is certainly coming back towards us, we can’t do much about what that perception is right now,” he said.
“We know where our next step and progression lies and if we are really able to set that standard and execute it at a high level then I know that we can take the next step.
“I think when you start any pre-season everyone starts with that hope banner and on your work in pre-season you start to look at how you replicate session after session, you see the behaviour of the guys.
“You see the amount of content and education we have gotten into our guys so their understanding is at a higher level and our demographic is coming together really nicely.
“So when you put those things together hope turns into belief really quickly but we don’t get to prove ourselves until we start playing.”