St Kilda coach Brett Ratten has backed high-profile recruit Brad Hill to turn the corner as the Saints prepare to confront AFL ladder-leaders Port Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.

Hill has had a relatively quiet 2020 so far, averaging 15.2 disposals across seven games at St Kilda compared to 25.1 – albeit with longer quarters – at Fremantle last year.

“Hilly, I feel, is just about to break a game open,” Ratten said on Friday.

“He’s not far off it. His running and his running numbers were very high last week and he was probably a bit stiff not to get the ball a few times when he was in really good positions.

“So he’s about to get round the corner on that and really have a breakout game.”

Heading to Adelaide for the second time in less than a week after beating the Crows on Monday, St Kilda will face a hostile crowd of up to 20,000 as they take on the in-form Power.

“It’s going to be a big challenge but it’s one we’re looking forward to,” Ratten said.

“You’re going to have to take the teams on up the top and do your best and for our boys, we could get some real confidence out of this.”

Port Adelaide are top of the ladder and return to Adelaide full of confidence after a successful stint on the road.

“We’re confident that we can come here and play good footy,” Power coach Ken Hinkley said.

“We’ve played good footy so far for six out of seven games and we’ve got great belief in the way we play.

“We know how good St Kilda are. We only saw them early this week on Monday so it’s a good chance to see where we are at.

“The competition’s thrown up so many different things and for us this week to be home is a little unusual – so that’ll be interesting, to see how we handle that.”

Brad Ebert returns from suspension for the Power while Riley Bonner and Mitch Georgiades have been recalled.

Port Adelaide are without injured duo Ryan Burton and Steven Motlop while Justin Westhoff has been dropped.

The Saints have called up Jack Sinclair and Matt Parker for their first games of the season, while Nicholas Hind returns.

Josh Battle is sidelined with a facial fracture and concussion, while Jack Lonie and Ryan Byrnes were dropped.