Brendan Lines 17 July, 2020 12:00

Coach Ken Hinkley has welcomed the inclusion of former Brisbane mid Sam Mayes this week, who makes his debut for the club, replacing injured defender Cam Sutcliffe, Hinkley says a ‘squad mentality’ will be essential for all teams getting through the now condensed season.

Speaking today at Alberton before the club’s clash with the Blues, Hinkley revealed the critical numbers for player lists going forward.

“I think every squad in the competition we’re looking at a squad mentality and you need to have squad available to play and I think that’s been one of the challenges for everyone this year thus far.” he said.

“We probably need 30 to 32 players ready to go at anyone one point in time and the best we can prepare them is to give them opportunities to play,”

“We’ve seen Cam Sutcliffe come in last week and unfortunately do a hamstring, so you’ve got to be a little more aware of what the challenges maybe for us,” he said.

While Port’s list looks rather healthy, there are hamstring concerns, as Sutcliffe goes out and Xavier Duursma is likely to return from a hamstring sustained against Fremantle in round three.

Xavier Duursma at Port Adelaide training this week – Image: Fox Sports

Last night’s Geelong and Collingwood match saw Cats captain Joel Selwood sidelined at the acute signs of hamstring soreness, a stark reminder just how the slightest niggle will undoubtedly trigger an imbalance on rotations in games and flow into selection issues.

Prior to AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan’s statement on Wednesday signalling the condensing of the season, there was 115 injuries across all clubs – 46 soft tissue, 69 hard tissue.

For now, Hinkley’s 32-player ‘baseline’ looks firmly in tact, but Hinkley still has his fingers crossed around hamstring issues.

“Wether when you return from a hamstring you have to fly in fly out, wether you play at home, there’s always an element of you’re sitting there with your fingers crossed just a little bit,” he said.

Australian sport scientist Dr. Joel Mason a researcher at the Jena Institute of Sport Science in Germany has recorded an alarming post-lockdown injury spike in the Bundesliga and AFL.

Dr. Mason for AFL.com this week wrote:

‘What’s concerning is the week-on-week increase since the season resumed a month ago, after a four-week mini-pre-season.’

Across the competition there has been 13 hamstring setbacks across rounds four to six this year, which is a frightening up-tick on the three recorded cases from the same time frame in 2019.

Hinkley confirmed there will be a scratch match against the Crows this weekend, but limited numbers will decide what the squads for those games will be.

“It will depend on your numbers if you get a few injuries you start to drip away with your numbers you can actually get something that ends up being ten on ten or eleven on eleven,” he said.

“That’s what the season pretty well much brings to sides by the end of it, so there’ll be some challenges with the numbers.”

The Crows and Port are in a position with local COVID restrictions allowing scratch matches to continue, a situation the rival clubs would be unwise not to exploit to keep up their players preparedness.

As the Geelong v Collingwood scratch match at Optus Stadium was not allowed due to the WA government’s quarantine restrictions.

Port Adelaide play Carlton at the GABBA Saturday, 12:35PM ACST.