Brendan Lines June 19, 2020

Port Adelaide have begun their journey north to the Gold Coast hub for their round three clash with Fremantle, just minutes after reports emerged South Australia will lift border restrictions to travellers from Queensland, Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley says he will take his squad bolstered by returning vice-captain Ollie Wines with the certainty of playing all three games as planned.

Port Adelaide vice captain Ollie Wines – Image: SEN

Hinkley spoke to the media before boarding the team bus to Adelaide Airport this morning from Alberton.

“I think for us it’s pretty simple, we’re going up there with some certainty in our own minds for three games, and we’re going to go up there to play well in those three games,” he said.

“We’re not going to get distracted by anything other than we’re preparing to play footy, all the other stuff will take care of itself and has done all the way throughout the pandemic.”

The lifting of restrictions means travellers can come into South Australia from Queensland without serving 14 days isolation, potentially leaving the door open for travel back and forth between games for the club.

However it’s unlikely as the AFL has locked away the fixture for rounds three, four and five regardless of the changes on restrictions.

Amid the changes, Port bring in Wines off a promising trial match last weekend as he served his one match suspension for breaching AFL COVID-19 guidelines.

“It was an easy decision for us in the end that he gets to play a game of football and he’s in really good form and he’s our vice captain, so he comes back into the team,” Hinkley said.

Wines will join Port Adelaide’s mid-field along side in-form Connor Rozee, in an effort to gain the edge Hinkley is looking for in the opening minutes of the shortened quarters.

“We think collectively we need to be really sharp at the start of games and we haven’t quite got that right in our first two games this year,” he said.

Where rivals Adelaide are taking a full squad, Hinkley has elected to take a reduced squad of 32 leaving 12 players behind to work on development, a strategy Hinkley says is borrowed from the club’s games played in China with a squad of 26 players.

“We’ve gone over there (China) with a performance based opportunity for us and that’s what we’ve taken into the Gold Coast, we need to go there and play well and win games of AFL football, So we feel like we’ve got people up there ready to play and can help us straight away.” he said.

There’s some good news for the 400 Port fans on the Gold Coast who have continued their pledge to the club, as Metricon Stadium has confirmed a crowd of 300 will be allowed at Sunday’s match, offering a portion of available tickets to Port Adelaide.