Port Adelaide champion Kane Cornes believes the Power must change their forward structure following the club’s 64-point loss to Hawthorn in Round 2.
Cornes has called for Power talls Todd Marshall and Jeremy Finlayson to be dropped for Friday night’s Showdown clash against Adelaide.
Marshall and Finlayson were held goalless against the Hawks and have contributed just one goal between them from the opening two rounds.
The Power are currently without injured star spearhead Charlie Dixon.
“If you’re going to play three tall forwards – Marshall, Finlayson and (Mitch) Georgiades – you’d want them impacting the scoreboard, and if they don’t, you’d want them putting pressure on,” Cornes told SEN SA Breakfast.
“The ease in which Hawthorn rebounded the ball … that’s because the forwards didn’t put any pressure on.
“You just can’t play those three key forwards again.
“Which ones do you leave out? You keep Georgiades because he’s the only one that looks threatening in that forward 50 so far until Charlie Dixon comes back in.
“But I can’t make a case of how you could pick Finlayson or Todd Marshall moving forward – certainly Todd Marshall needs to go back (to the SANFL), there’s no doubt, and Finlayson is the same, he’s been uncompetitive.
“I don’t know what they do at selection until Charlie Dixon is available.”
Power assistant coach Chad Cornes was frank in his assessment of Marshall and Finlayson’s early-season output.
“Toddy … the effort is there at times, but he’s just not at the level we need in the actual contest in the air and that has been an issue for a while now,” Cornes told SEN SA Breakfast.
“And Jeremy – just some unacceptable efforts both in the air and then once we lose the ball in defence.”
Finlayson joined Port Adelaide on a three-year deal in a trade from GWS last October.
The 0-2 Power take on the winless Crows at Adelaide Oval in Round 3.
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