Port recruit on comeback trail to solve forward woes
Steve Larkin |
Port Adelaide hope the state league return of injury-troubled recruit Jack Lukosius is a step to solving a desperate question.
The Power host Carlton on Thursday night with both clubs on the brink – two wins outside the top eight.
Lukosius will play for Port Adelaide Magpies in the SANFL in his comeback from a dislocated kneecap.
The Power’s trump signing from Gold Coast suffered the injury in round two.
“Jack will play some minutes with the Maggies on Saturday, which will be great, so he shouldn’t be too far away,” Port assistant coach Chad Cornes told reporters on Monday.
“He has had a long time out. His last month has been really positive but I’m not sure how many minutes he will play.”
Lukosius’ absence and the achilles injury to Todd Marshall have denied Port options for the second tall attacker role next to Mitch Georgiades.
Georgiades has impressed with 33 goals but has lacked a reliable foil with Ollie Lord, Jeremy Finlayson and resting rucks failing to fill the vacancy.
Port’s scoring outout has dropped to fourth-lowest in the competition, averaging only 10.6 a game.
“It has been a real issue for us, not having that other tall target forward,” Cornes said.
“You would have loved someone to step up in those guys’ absence.”
Key defender Aliir Aliir (knee) was rated by Cornes as a “good chance” to face the Blues but Brownlow medallist Ollie Wines was only “50-50” to return.
The Adelaide Oval encounter is high stakes for both clubs – both have six wins and eight losses and pressure is mounting on Carlton coach Michael Voss, a former assistant at Port.
“I reckon he probably reads less than what I do,” said Cornes, who digests no AFL media at all.
“So I don’t reckon he would let that influence what he’s doing at all.
“But we do know he would be pushing pretty hard for a strong response, so expecting a pretty competitive opening quarter I would think.”
AAP
