"Brendon will be fine," Bailey said just before Port's squad of 25 players, accompanied by coaches and some officials and support staff, caught their flight from Adelaide to Melbourne late Thursday afternoon.
"We expect him to play. He just had a bit of tightness in the back. You get that in most players. Players are a little bit sore at the start of a week, but Brendon's looking pretty good to play, actually."
Port has chosen the same team that won last week's preliminary final against St Kilda, with Stuart Cochrane, Damon White and Brett Ebert named as the emergencies again.
Bailey agreed selection had been 'tough'.
"We spoke about a lot of things," he said. "Choco's pretty happy. We had a good debate so we're rearing to go.
"I think we're going in with the best-prepared 22 players who have proven in previous weeks that they've held up. They've played well and we expect them to do the same on Saturday."
Bailey described Port's mood as 'full of excitement for the club - the whole week has been terrific', and he said the players were 'very focused on the game'.
And of Friday's grand final parade, he said: "You've got to go in and enjoy that sort of thing. If you're not wanting to get involved or seeing it as a distraction, then you are going to distract yourself. We're going to enjoy the day and keep our focus on playing well on Saturday."
When a television reporter asked Bailey, somewhat facetiously, whether, with all the talk of 'crash and bash', there was 'room for tactics and skills', he said: "If you've watched lots of grand finals, the first five or 10 minutes are fairly serious and there's lots of physical pressure on.
"The tactics will come in. Most of the players are aware of the tactics, most of the tactics that are going to be in play. There's nothing that will be brand new or radical because then I think you start to confuse players with what you want to do.
"They're very good at stoppages, we're very good at stoppages, and I think you'll find in finals the hard, tough footy's going to come out, and our last couple of weeks have been good in that area and we expect the same on Saturday."
Bailey said Port's match-ups with the Lions looked 'fine'.
"We're very comfortable going into this game against the Lions," he said. "Our players have performed well and we need to stick to the plan that's got us here."
Bailey described coach Mark Williams' mood as 'pretty relaxed'.
"Most weeks he's pretty relaxed come this time of the week," he said. "We're a couple of days away, there's not a lot more we can do. He stays focused and he's been very relaxed with the players.
"It's always a happy mood when you walk into a grand final. We're a very happy club at Port Adelaide. Everything's going very, very well at the moment.
"The problem is we've got a game on Saturday and we're very determined to play well in it. You need the players relaxed. They've trained well this week and they're looking forward to it.
"The players have got routines they'll stick to up to the minute of the game. You're playing a special day in September and it's important they keep their routines."
Asked what roles Port's two long-term, knee-injury casualties, captain/ruckman Matthew Primus and ace midfielder Josh Francou, had played this week, Bailey said: "They're both outstanding leaders. They've got involved in weights, they've been around the club, they've spoken to players, they're two sorely missed players.
"They're very, very keen for their mates to play well. They've been very important to the build-up, no doubt about that."
