Port Adelaide may wait until after JLT Showdown to name captain as it vows to get decision right

Port Adelaide might wait until after the JLT Showdown in Port Pirie in March to name who will take the keys and succeed Travis Boak in the driver’s seat of a hotted-up Power machine.

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Travis Boak’s successor in the driver’s seat of a hotted-up Port Adelaide machine might not be decided before its March 2 JLT series Showdown with Adelaide in Port Pirie.

Port will take its time to make “the right decision’ on the sole or co-captaincy options to replace Boak after six years as skipper, says assistant coach Brett Montgomery,

Ollie Wines and Tom Jonas are the standout candidates.

“Often with these things it is the external things that back you into a quicker decision. I think the club has been really strong at looking at an extended view and bigger sample size to get exactly what we need,” Montgomery said.

“However long it takes us, whether we do firm it up prior to any practice games, the JLT or longer it is time well spent.”

Adelaide’s appointment of its first official co-captains Rory Sloane and Tex Walker this week was heralded as a win-win ploy.

A Wines-Jonas leadership ticket would mark a shift in Port Adelaide tradition but joint-captains make sense given their contrasting style and personalities.

Port Adelaide defensive coach Brett Montgomery during training at Alberton Oval on Wednesday. Picture: Simon Cross

“I can safely say we are in good hands. Wherever it does land for captaincy or leaders we are in pretty good shape,” said 2004 premiership half-back Montgomery who returns to Alberton after coaching stints at Carlton and the Western Bulldogs.

“Whether it be a one-out leader, co-captain or group that carries quite a lot of responsibility, it is the model that suits your group.”

If Port Adelaide was AFL’s version of a Volvo driver last year, then it will epitomise all things Lamborghini by being “brave, bold and exciting” in 2019, Montgomery says. The static ball movement that made life hard for Port’s forwards will be gone.

Sam Powell-Pepper at Alberton on Wednesday. Picture Simon Cross

“If we were to be really critical there might have been a little bit if conservative type play last year. I think there is a little bit of room to move there,” said Montgomery, also lauding Sam Powell-Pepper’s slimmed-down frame this summer.

“We would like to be more aggressive, give our forwards a look at the ball rather than have to build it up as often we have in the past from the back half.”

Ryan Burton has settled following a high-profile switch with Chad Wingard but the 191cm Hawthorn recruit won’t be typecast as a defender.

“I think he is a lot more flexible than people give up credit for,” said defensive coach Montgomery of 47-game, counter-attacking force Burton.

“He spent most of time at Hawthorn as a defender but will get more of a look here, keep his skill set quite wide. He will spend the early stages in the back half or wing but is a really versatile kind of guy.”