Port Adelaide star Hamish Hartlett out of JLT clash and facing delayed start to AFL season

Hamish Hartlett is out of Saturday’s JLT Community Series match against Adelaide and unlikely to play AFL premiership season football until at least round three.

Port Adelaide vice-captain Hamish Hartlett (right) with new co-captains Tom Jonas and Ollie Wines. Picture: MATT TURNER.

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Hamish Hartlett is out of Saturday’s JLT Community Series match against Adelaide and unlikely to play AFL premiership season football until at least round three.

The ace Port Adelaide playmaker and new vice-captain has had his first real setback in his rehabilitation from a right knee reconstruction which will delay his planned comeback.

Hartlett, who ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament at training on April 26 last year, reported knee soreness after a heavy training workload last week as he prepared to play against the Crows at Port Pirie and push for round one AFL selection.

But he has now had to pull the reins slightly with his long-awaited and much-anticipated comeback.

Hamish Hartlett is taking a hesitant approach in his return from an ACL injury. Picture Sarah Reed

Hartlett during Port Adelaide’s preseason at Alberton Oval. Picture Simon Cross

“Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be playing on Saturday but I’m certainly looking to return to play over the next week or two, which is really exciting,’’ Hartlett said.

“It’s been a long 10 months of rehab and I’ve got great confidence in my knee now and was really close to playing this week.

“But with these types of long term injuries things can pop up from time to time and I’ve just had to be managed a little bit over the past week or two.

“As is the case with a lot of these long-term knee injuries, little things bob up, so this is about management of my knee more than anything.

“It probably hasn’t recovered as well as I would have liked from a training session late last week, which has meant I’ve had to pull things back slightly.

“The knee can get — as it has from time to time through this whole process — a bit niggly and swollen, which is one of those things that occurred last week.

“But the aim is to play next week (against North Melbourne at Alberton Oval on March 9) or, if not, round one.’’

Hartlett, 28, said his setback would hurt his chances of playing in round one of the premiership season against Melbourne at the MCG on March 23.

He now expects to start the year with the Port Magpies in the SANFL.

“Round one is still three or four weeks away and I’ll be doing everything I can to play but whether I do at AFL level remains to be seen,’’ Hartlett said.

“To be honest I don’t know whether I would have the match fitness to get through a full game of AFL footy.

“No matter how much pre-season you do and no matter how many pre-season games you play, you always find, for me anyway, that I am always cramping halfway through the third quarter in rounds one and two of the AFL season.

Port Adelaide vice-captain Hamish Hartlett (right) with new co-captains Tom Jonas and Ollie Wines. Picture: MATT TURNER.

“To come back from playing no matches, straight into an AFL team, I don’t know whether that would sit really comfortably with me.

“I would like to get a couple of full games, probably at Magpies level, to just gain that match fitness and then go into an AFL game from there.

“We’ll wait and see how things roll out but I would say (he would be AFL ready) in the first few rounds of the season.’’

Hartlett hasn’t played an AFL match since round five last year against Geelong at Adelaide Oval.

The rebounding half-back broke down at training five days later at Alberton Oval in an innocuous training incident which prematurely ended arguably his best start to a season.

“I’ve got no doubt that my best footy is still ahead of me and that I can showcase that when the time comes,’’ Hartlett said.

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