Port Adelaide football manager Chris Davies says the Power are unlikely to take their full squad to the AFL’s Gold Coast hub.
The two South Australian teams will resume their season with a Showdown in Adelaide next Saturday before heading to the Gold Coast, with the Power playing Fremantle, West Coast and Brisbane in Queensland.
It had been expected teams would relocate their full football operations to the hubs but Davies said the Power were “leaning towards” leaving some players back in Adelaide.
“We’re probably leaning at the moment towards not taking the entire squad,” Davies told ABC Grandstand radio.
“Certainly, there are pros and cons to that. Obviously splitting up the group is one of the most obvious things that we’re mindful of.
“But at the same time, we’ve probably got a group of players who are either … injured or a couple who would have been developing in the SANFL.
“But we might have a chance to put two and a half really good weeks of development on a different program (into those players) than maybe what the AFL team or squad would actually be (going) through.
“So that’s one (pro), obviously having a squad up in Queensland who are totally focused on winning at AFL level is probably another one of the pros as well.
“We’ll make final decisions on that over the next couple of days but I think probably right now I’d say that we’re leaning towards not taking the whole squad.”
Davies was confident the Power could keep those players left in Adelaide hungry and match fit while the rest of the squad was on the Gold Coast.
“We’ll play against Adelaide most likely in a match simulation type session next week in the lead up the AFL teams (playing) at Adelaide Oval,” Davies said.
“Then, look, we’re confident in our high performance team to put together a program that will make sure that those guys are match fit.
“Obviously if we’re only up there for two weeks then that would mean the guys have realistically only missed a couple of weeks of whatever footy they would be able to play anyway.
“I think most clubs are contemplating not playing a trial game every week anyway so you know it will be more about the way that the borders open up.
“We’ll make sure that the rest of the squad are ready and raring to go if that time comes.”
Davies expected Robbie Gray (toe), Ollie Wines (shoulder) and Riley Bonner (quad) to be fit for selection in round two.