Port Adelaide defender Matthew Broadbent’s start to AFL season derailed by continued ankle pain

PORT Adelaide will not have experienced defender Matthew Broadbent available for at least the first month of the new season as he continues to be troubled by an ankle injury

Port Adelaide defender Matthew Broadbent remains troubled by an ankle injury that wrecked the second half of his AFL season last year. Picture: Sarah Reed

MATTHEW Broadbent’s long-running battle to regain his critical role in the Port Adelaide defence remains dogged by ligament pain around an ankle.

Despite corrective surgery in the off-season, the 27-year-old half-back is still off the training track at Alberton as he finds no relief to the irritation to the ankle syndesmosis strain that wrecked the second half of his AFL season last year.

The Power is not hopeful of 161-game Broadbent offering his valued experience and run from defence in the opening month of the premiership season that opens at home at Adelaide Oval on March 24 against Fremantle.

Port Adelaide is putting an “indefinite” timeline to Broadbent’s return to training and playing. This emphasises the Power medical team will not push nor rush Broadbent while his ankle remains uneasy, even after surgery in October.

Matthew Broadbent during one of his 15 games for the Power last season. Picture: Sarah Reed

Broadbent played 15 AFL games last season, but just four in the second half of the home-and-away series. His last AFL match was on July 29 against St Kilda. He did play out the season in SANFL ranks, but with obvious limitations created by stop-start training as Broadbent dealt with what was then referred to as bone bruising around the ankle.

Broadbent’s absence leaves Power coach Ken Hinkley to work to the experience of Jasper Pittard for the critical rebound role in defence — and to challenge novice Riley Bonner and Gold Coast recruit Trent McKenzie to make an early impression on claiming a spot in Port Adelaide’s back six.

The on-field auditions begin late this month in a new-look pre-season that is reduced from three to two practice games. Port Adelaide’s campaign opens against West Coast in Perth on Sunday, February 25 and closes in a summer Showdown with Adelaide at Alberton Oval on Saturday, March 10.

Broadbent is the only serious concern at Alberton where the refit of the Port Adelaide line-up — after a very active campaign in the trade and delisting market in October and November — has increased Hinkley’s options at selection, particularly in attack and the midfield.

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