DOUBTS over the fitness of Cyril Rioli and Paul Puopolo have been cast aside by Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson, who is adamant the pair will play against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.
Rioli was sent for a scan early in the week after pulling up sore from last Sunday's clash against the Western Bulldogs, while Puopolo suffered a corked thigh after he unluckily ran into a field umpire before the game.
Puopolo played out the game but was subbed out in the fourth quarter.
"Cyril's fine. He's been fine all week. We sent him for a surveillance scan, so there's no trouble," Clarkson said at Melbourne Airport on Friday morning.
"[And] yep, Poppy will play. We'll go in as selected at this stage. We train again this afternoon so we hope all goes well with that."
The Power will be missing star midfielder Robbie Gray after he was a late withdrawal earlier on Friday morning.
Clarkson said the Hawks were pleased to hear the news of Gray's omission.
"He's a big out for them. He's an outstanding footballer. That'll make it a little bit easier for us, hopefully, because we have such high regard for him as a player," Clarkson said.
"It's good for us that he's not playing, but we know that this is a very, very strong Port Adelaide side."
Youngster Jed Anderson is the travelling emergency for the Hawks.
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Power ruckman Matthew Lobbe will return for his first game of the year against the Hawks after finally shaking off a lingering quad complaint.
Lobbe will team with Patrick Ryder in the ruck as the Power look to settle their first-choice ruck tandem down.
"There's a couple of sides of it, the talent that he can bring and the structure of their forward line will be a little different to what we've seen over the last little while," Clarkson said.
"We'll have to work out ways to combat that but we'll see how it unfolds on the night."
The last time these teams faced off was in last year's preliminary final, with the Hawks prevailing in a thriller by three points.
But Clarkson said the result last year meant little once Saturday night rolled around.
"Lots of things change. It's been six months since that game and there's different personnel in the sides and there's different motivation levels," Clarkson said.
"You're probably stretching it a bit to use that as a driving factor to get the victory on this occasion.
"All I know is that we'll go across into a pretty hostile environment this weekend and it's going to be a fierce battle and once you run out there you're probably not thinking too much about what happened six months ago."
