YOUNG Power defender Alipate ‘Bobby’ Carlile will be assigned one of the toughest tasks in football when Port Adelaide takes on Carlton at AAMI Stadium on Sunday.

Carlile, who played a career-best game at Subiaco last week against Fremantle, is likely to get the job on Carlton spearhead Brendan Fevola.

During the week, vice-captain Chad Cornes labelled Carlile as the “next Mal Michael” and coach Mark Williams said the powerfully built 21-year-old was up to the task of minding Fev.

“Alipate has played on Matthew Lloyd and on Jonathan Brown, so I’m thinking Fevola is up there with those quality players,” Williams said.

“Lloyd and Brown kicked some goals against him, but he’ll certainly spend some time on Fev and we look forward to it.

“Alipate has been a great development this year for us. [Regardless of] wins and losses, we’re improving as a club.

“We find some fantastic things happening with our younger players, as far as, ‘gee, they are a lot better than they were last year’.”

Fevola has been in superb form this season and is second in the Coleman Medal, but Williams said the Power were wary of being too Fev-focussed.

“I think Fev kicked eight goals against Essendon and the team lost, so don’t think it’s all about Fev. On other occasions he hasn’t kicked that many and Carlton has won,” Williams said.

“We understand that Eddie Betts, Brad Fisher and others can go down there and kick goals too. Cameron Cloke is looking pretty dangerous down there as well.

“They are a pretty rounded side now. They’ve been together for a bit of time and with the quality picks that they’ve had, they’re obviously going to come through.”

Kane Cornes, who will get the job on Chris Judd, left the track early at the Power’s Friday training session, as did Peter Burgoyne, who received a poke in the eye, but both will definitely be named in Port Adelaide’s 22-man team on Friday afternoon.