PORT Adelaide defender Jasper Pittard has been recalled for Friday night's clash with Richmond at Adelaide Oval.
Pittard's inclusion for just his second game of the season, at the expense of tall defender Jack Hombsch, is likely to be the Power's only change to the side that lost to Hawthorn by three points in Launceston last Saturday.
Part of the 40-man All Australian squad in 2016, Pittard had a disrupted start to the season when he injured his hamstring against Adelaide in the JLT Community Series.
The 27-year-old returned for the Power's round seven loss to West Coast in Perth, but was dropped to the SANFL the following week to regain form.
"We'll probably make one change, we'd like to get Jasper back in the side, which means one of our talls, probably Jack Hombsch, will more than likely miss out at this stage," Power coach Ken Hinkley told reporters on Thursday.
"Jasper's part of our best team and we've just tried, a bit like Rock (Tom Rockliff) a couple weeks back … to get them into some bit better form and we're not rushing them and we've given them the best opportunity to play some better football this time.
"It's opposition a bit, too. Richmond tend to play a smaller forward line and with the three or four talls we have at the moment, it's one too many for Richmond."
The eighth-placed Power (6-4) received a boost in their bid to knock off the reigning premiers with Brownlow medallist Dustin Martin not making the trip to Adelaide because of a calf injury.
"It's a good headache not to have," Hinkley said.
"He's the best player in the competition, but you watch Richmond, you know how well they're playing at the moment and how well they're competing as a team.
"They're not competing just as Dustin or Trent (Cotchin) or (Alex) Rance or (Jack) Riewoldt, the names that regularly get mentioned, the names that get missed are the names that are making significant impact in that side.
"That's the whole lot of them and they're putting a lot of pressure on."
Hinkley admitted key forward Charlie Dixon was struggling, having kicked seven goals this season compared to 49 last year.
"He's not in his best form, he wouldn't hide away from that," Hinkley said.
"What he needs to do is, it's not about kicking goals, it's not about taking marks – don't get me wrong, we love all those things – but compete first and foremost, bring the ball to ground and make sure we can put on a really significant contest in our forward 50, and that will help the team.
"And with the prediction of the (wet) weather tomorrow night, that's what we should expect from our bigger players."
Karl Amon, Jack Trengove and Lindsay Thomas trained with the Power on Thursday morning and are likely to be the emergencies.
Forward Todd Marshall will play in the SANFL on Saturday on his way back from a shoulder injury before being considered for next week's game with the Western Bulldogs.
