CARLTON is in its best form of the season heading into Friday night's clash against Port Adelaide but Power coach Ken Hinkley is delighted to be facing a team on the rise.
The Blues pushed Geelong to the brink last Friday night only to be sunk by a contentious umpiring decision that gifted Cat Allen Christensen a match-winning goal.
Hinkley's men returned to the winners' circle last weekend in the toughest of conditions on the Gold Coast and the coach said the tests needed to continue if his side was to hit peak form.
"[Carlton's] midfield's in really top form and they've got some great class in there. (Jarrad) Waite's in form up forward – they've got a really good balance," Hinkley said.
"You can just see they've been building right through the season and now they're probably in as good form as they've been in all year.
"We need to play against a high-quality opposition every week to make sure that we can keep getting our game back to the level we need it to be.
"The last couple of weeks we've been back in some reasonable form, but last week was really hard to judge, so we'll wait until Friday night and hopefully with a full house we'll be able to see our best form."
Aiding Port's cause will be the return of injured duo Angus Monfries (hip flexor) and Jackson Trengove (ankle), who both missed last week's win over Gold Coast.
Hinkley even tipped Hamish Hartlett, who finished the game on crutches after rolling his ankle, to take his place against the Blues.
Their availability means Hinkley and his assistant coaches have a substantial pool of players from which to pick a team; only Jarrad Redden, Sam Colquhoun and Brent Renouf – all long-term injuries – are off the selection table.
"[Monfries and Trengove will] all be ok and should play, the only one that would be any doubt at all would be Hamish and I think there's very little doubt that he will play," he said.
"We'll have 41 out of 44 players available, so it's really healthy.
"It just gives you a little bit of comfort in the combative sport that we play - there's probably going to be another injury or two that comes our way and we've just got a healthy list that allows us to cover those people."
