Port Adelaide’s players are bracing for a ferocious physical assault from Richmond in a fiery Friday night AFL preliminary final.
Power assistant coach Michael Voss expects the finals-hardened Tigers to try and knock Port off its game in the Adelaide Oval encounter.
“We would expect nothing else from Richmond,” Voss told reporters on Wednesday.
“They’re a seasoned group, they have been here before.
“They have got a style that they have committed to for the better part of four years that has been really effective for them.
“We expect there’s going to be a few fiery clashes and the contest will be really strong, but that is what finals are all about.”
Richmond will play in a fourth consecutive preliminary final while Port haven’t featured in the penultimate stage since 2014.
The Power team on Friday night will include six players from their 2014 preliminary final loss while just two others – recruits Scott Lycett and Steven Motlop – have experienced a prelim.
“There would be an argument to suggest that we don’t have the experience for this particular game,” Voss said.
“But when you stack it up against the body of work that we have been able to get over the course of this year, and the real belief that we have got … there’s enough for the guys to feel quite confident.
“They (preliminary finals) are all hard to win.
“You have got the best four teams that are playing, they have all been really refined and coached well, they execute extremely well.
“You have to take your chances. We’re expecting the game to go to the wire.
“It’s going to be about the team that makes the right decisions at the right time and under a fair bit if duress and pressure.”