Trengove expects Boak to stay

PORT Adelaide leader Jackson Trengove has backed Travis Boak's decision to return to Melbourne before deciding his future.

Travis Boak

PORT Adelaide leader Jackson Trengove has backed Travis Boak's decision to return to Melbourne before deciding his future.

Trengove said he was supremely confident his fellow vice-captain would ink a new deal to stay at Alberton.

But he said Boak was doing the right thing by discussing his future at length with his family - mum Chicki and two sisters - in their home town of Torquay before committing to the club.

"I did the same thing last year - and so did Alipate (Carlile) and Butch (John Butcher)," said 21-year-old key defender Trengove, who, like Boak, hails from Victoria.

"What a lot of people from SA don't understand is that we (players from interstate) don't get a chance to catch up with our families very often.

"We talk on the phone a lot but we really only get a couple of chances a year to catch up with them properly.

"To decide your future and commit to a club is a big decision and you have to make sure your family is OK with any decision you make.

"I went through it last year and clearly Trav is going through it now. He has to make sure his mum and sisters are OK with what he wants to do, and his teammates and our club have to respect that - which we do.

"But Trav is a massive part of where we're going as a team and I'm sure that after he sits down with his family he'll confirm he wants to stay here, just as we (Trengove, Carlile and Butcher) did last year."

Trengove - who will play his 50th game on Saturday night against Carlton at AAMI Stadium - and Boak are Port's two young emerging leaders sitting under veteran skipper Dom Cassisi.

They are close mates who tied for last year's club champion award.

The pair are also massive fans of coach Matthew Primus, whose job had come under intense scrutiny before consecutive wins in the past two rounds against North Melbourne and Gold Coast.

Trengove said Primus had been a tower of strength, who had not been distracted by questions about his future. "He's a strong man who has only been concerned about making our team better," Trengove said.

"The players are 100 per cent behind him and really want to get results - not only for us and the club but also Matty. Matty's doing an outstanding job and is taking steps to develop us into a top-notch side."

After back-to-back wins, he said Port's next challenge was to beat a top-four contender, such as the Blues.

"We're looking forward to playing Carlton," he said.

"They are a premiership contender and will give us a good test of where we're at. If we can beat a team like Carlton it will really show we're going places."

While Trengove has been a tower of strength in defence this season, he displayed his off-field qualities on Tuesday night by joining teammates Carlile, Brett Ebert and Danyle Pearce in helping feed some of Adelaide's homeless people in the city.

"It was a very humbling experience and an honour to be able to help people who are in need," Trengove said of his hands-on work for charity organisation and community-minded club sponsor Foodbank.