PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley is wary a tumultuous week will galvanise a battling Adelaide side for their 50th AFL Showdown.

High-flying Port are at short odds to beat the 16th-placed Crows at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night and shore up a spot in the top four.

Adelaide have made recent headlines for the wrong reasons, with veteran Taylor Walker on Friday accepting a six-game ban for making a racist comment about North Adelaide's Robbie Young at an SANFL game.

Walker, who was a spectator at the match, was reported by a Crows official with the club then taking the matter to the AFL.

"We all understand what some of these moments can do to a team, it can galvanise you and pull you together," Hinkley told reporters.

"When you haven't got much going on that's feeling too comfortable, at least you can go out and play football. For us, we need to be ready for their absolute best."

Port have claimed the last three Showdowns and are in a rich vein of form having won six of their past seven games.

They welcome back Robbie Gray from a six-week absence after he suffered a torn medial ligament in career game No.250 in round 14.

Gray replaces tall forward Todd Marshall, who Hinkley admitted had been left in an awkward position.

"We're starting to get a number of our key small forwards back into the team," he said.

"We've had a pretty solid road map to get to this point with Rob, all the way since surgery.

"It was always this round and everything has progressed the way we'd have hoped it to."

Adelaide have recalled David Mackay and forward Riley Thilthorpe, while wing/forward Brayden Cook will debut.

Hinkley was refusing to read in to the fact his side has been installed as heavy favourites.

"I've coached a lot of Showdowns and the bookmakers get it wrong lots of time," he said.

"They don't quite understand the Showdown."