PORT Adelaide has committed to playing its youngsters for the remainder of the season as the club looks towards the future, but promising defender Paul Stewart is under no illusions he will still have to fight for his spot.
Stewart, who has not played since injuring his neck in a sickening clash against Carlton two weeks ago, said coach Mark Williams would not gift his young players AFL games purely because finals were out of the question.
“It is exciting that some more guys will get a chance, but as always with the Port Adelaide guernsey you have to earn your spot,” Stewart said.
“Choco isn’t just going to throw young players in that aren’t performing. He’s going to play the guys that have earned their spot and have been going well in the SANFL.”
On Tuesday, Stewart became the sixth member of Port Adelaide’s 2006 NAB AFL draft group, behind Travis Boak, Nathan Krakouer, Justin Westhoff, Robbie Gray and David Rodan, to re-sign with the club.
The 20-year-old said Power youngsters were committed to help changing the team’s fortunes in the final nine rounds.
“The younger guys always have meetings about how we’ve got to lift the group because if we lift, we put pressure on the older guys and then they lift,” he said.
“We’ve really been pushing and trying to get the young guys up to play good team football.”
The Power will make three forced changes to their line up this week with Peter Burgoyne (hamstring), Steve Salopek (achilles) and Matt Thomas (suspended) all ruled out of contention.
Stewart was hopeful of regaining his place in the side and said a win against the Western Bulldogs at TIO Stadium on Saturday night was high on the club’s agenda.
“The mood at the club has been a bit different this year, especially compared to last year when we were just winning every week,” Stewart said.
“Mathematically there is still a chance and, ever since I got here, it’s been all about winning. Nothing will change. We’ll still put our best available players in there and try to get a win every week.
“It would be good to finish off the year with some wins and with some more games for myself, but it’s all about the team at the moment and getting back on the winner’s list.
“We need to get over this little slump and finish off the year well, so we can take some confidence into next year.
“We’re not going to be trying to lose games or anything. We’ve always been about winning and we’ll go up to Darwin this week, give it a real crack and see if we can topple the Western Bulldogs.”
