AFL semi-final teams news: Power turn to young gun Josh Sinn, Toby Bedford returns for Giants
Port Adelaide has turned to a young gun to aid its defensive woes, while Hawthorn has confirmed Sam Frost’s replacement. See all the teams here.
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Port Adelaide will try to stretch Hawthorn’s defence with four tall forwards as Todd Marshall returns and an out-of-sorts Charlie Dixon gets another chance in Friday night’s semi-final.
With Hawthorn losing fullback Sam Frost to a foot stress injury, the Power are set to gamble on Marshall joining Dixon, Mitch Georgiades and Esava Ratugolea in attack.
The decision came at the expense of small forward Jed McEntee, while halfback Ryan Burton was ruled out due to a calf injury.
The Power turned to left-footer Josh Sinn for his first senior game since round 16 after Burton’s absence left them short of a quality ball-user in defence.
Dan Houston’s suspension and Kane Farrell’s hamstring injury had already left Port’s stocks threadbare behind the ball.
Jai Serong’s inclusion in place of Frost was the only change for the Hawks, who named 300-gamer Luke Breust at full-forward in a sign he could leave the sub role after five consecutive matches.
Fellow veteran Jack Gunston and wingman Harry Morrison were sub options named on the Hawks’ bench.
Toby Bedford was poised to resume hostilities with Brisbane star Lachie Neale on Saturday as GWS confirmed the versatile speedster would return from a calf injury in place of Toby McMullin.
In a revamped role as a tagger this season, Bedford held Neale to 21 disposals in round 7 and 24 disposals in round 22 as the Giants won both games.
Brisbane named fullback Jack Payne, but there was no guarantee he would get to the start line on Saturday as the Lions gave him every chance to recover from a knee injury sustained in the win over Carlton.
Lions coach Chris Fagan said Payne would be picked as long as he was “90 per cent fit”, with his size set to be important in match-ups against Coleman medallist Jesse Hogan and veteran tall Lachie Keeffe, who was dangerous forward in the qualifying final.
Xavier O’Halloran and Noah Answerth were the likely respective sub options for GWS and Brisbane.
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Originally published as AFL semi-final teams news: Power turn to young gun Josh Sinn, Toby Bedford returns for Giants
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