Connor’s time for middle mania

CONNOR Rozee will get a sustained run in the Port Adelaide midfield as Power coach Ken Hinkley looks to continue his side’s improvement, shown over their past six quarters of footy.

The Power finally claimed their first points of the season with a convincing win against West Coast last weekend.

It followed on from a muchimproved second half against Carlton the previous week, in which the Power nearly came back from 50 points down.

A key feature of these six quarters, which Hinkley said the Power “have been much more pleased with the way that we are going about it”, has been Rozee deployed a lot more around the ball.

Prior to halftime against Carlton, Rozee had attended just seven centre bounces. Since then the 22-year-old has attended 29, and has played his best footy of the year.

“We were very pleased with Connor Rozee,” Hinkley said.

“Connor has been in the challenge of the team a little bit, the team hasn’t been flying and we’ve needed to use him in a couple of different spots rather than our preferred spot.

“Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been able to get him around the ball and he’s been able to help us as a team.

“We are optimistic, as we’ve always been, about the younger group of midfielders we have coming through.”

He said the returns of Robbie Gray and Kane Farrell had allowed the Power to move Rozee into the middle of the ground.

“It’s not too simple but it is part of the reason, Kane Farrell coming back as well who can play as a high half-forward,” he said. “It’s about Travis also being able to play as a high half-forward at times for us.”

Hinkley was confident Aliir Aliir would face the Saints after rolling his ankle against the Eagles, while Gray needs to pass some straight-line running drills after he jarred his knee.

Hinkley also said that he was getting more and more optimistic around Charlie Dixon and Orazio Fantasia returning.

“Dixon and Fantasia are moving along quickly ... some really promising stuff,” he said.