Port Adelaide hopeful Scott Lycett will be fit to lead the ruck against Brisbane as Power searches for consecutive wins
Ken Hinkley went out of his way to personally thank Scott Lycett in the rooms on Saturday night and the Power is hopeful he will be fit to play Brisbane as they search for that elusive back-to-back victory next weekend.
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Port Adelaide is optimistic ruckman Scott Lycett will be fit to play Brisbane on Sunday as the Power looks to answer the million-dollar question at Alberton — can it win two in a row?
Lycett drew widespread praise from Hinkley on Saturday night when he personally thanked him for playing through the pain of a sore knee after clashing with Josh Jenkins and hobbling off in the first quarter.
Not only did Lycett go on to win six clearances and kick a crucial goal in the third term, his presence allowed Justin Westhoff and Dougal Howard to have maximum impact at either end of the ground in the Showdown thumping of Adelaide.
“I said it to him in the rooms, ‘I really appreciate it mate that you were able to keep going through there’, he copped knee on knee and they look like PCL’s (posterior cruciate ligament) and that’s possibly going to rule you out,” Hinkley said.
“But he kept going and eight days will do him the world of good and hopefully he can get up again.
“I think he’s going to be OK when you consider he played out three-and-a-half quarters like it.”
The Power has plenty of options in the ruck since sending Paddy Ryder back to the SANFL where he had 15 disposals and kicked 1.3 in Sunday’s win over West Adelaide. They also played Peter Ladhams and Sam Hayes in the ruck while Billy Frampton kicked for goals.
Port Adelaide broke the 100-point barrier for just the second time this season while holding Adelaide to its lowest score in Showdown history (44) on Saturday night.
It has now gone win, loss, win, loss, win, loss, win its past seven games and hosts Brisbane at Adelaide Oval in the Sunday twilight game this week.
The Power will be desperate to avoid another let down after they lost to the Bulldogs the week after beating Geelong.
“I just believe in the group and I know people won’t like that because together we’ve been this team that has given ourselves a chance to be better but … I’m going to say it again this is a better group (than the past),” Hinkley said.
“They’re learning, they’re going to be a better team at some point (but) there will be frustrations, I’ve said that before.
“We’ve trained incredibly well for a long period this year and worked incredibly hard to become better as players and coaches and we have some ups and downs, we get it, and let me be sure — no one gets more frustrated than the boys themselves.
“They want to play like that every week and they get another opportunity next week.”
reece.homfray@news.com.au