Ryder won't be Port's AFL saviour: Hinkley

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley says returning ruckman Paddy Ryder won't be the AFL club's saviour this season.

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley says it would be foolish to think ruckman Paddy Ryder is the AFL club's saviour.

Ryder is returning to AFL ranks after being one of former and current Essendon players banned last season for the Bombers' 2012 supplements scandal.

Hinkley admits Ryder was sorely missed by the Power last season when they failed to make the finals for consecutive years.

But he says one player alone won't make the difference in the looming season.

"You're not one player away from being a good team," Hinkley told AAP on Thursday.

"There's 22 parts to the team and you need all 22 playing their part.

"For us last year we missed a significant and important part. But it's not going to make the be-all and end-all for us.

" ... Paddy won't make the absolute difference but hopefully he will give us an opportunity to be a bit more proactive."

Ryder will play more minutes in Sunday's pre-season game against Richmond than he did in his comeback match last weekend.

And Hinkley said his other banned former Essendon player, forward Angus Monfries, was in the selection frame for the final round of pre-season games.

Monfries had shoulder surgery and also hurt a hamstring during pre-season training.

"He will probably play next week, if not, certainly the week after," Hinkley said of Monfries.

"It's just a matter of managing where's he up to with his shoulder and ... he was a bit too keen about four weeks ago and gave his hammy a little ping."

Hinkley said Monfries had returned after his suspension in "incredible shape".

"Gus has probably got himself to a whole new level of fitness," he said.

"He probably thinks that he has got to find a new weapon I reckon, and maybe one of things he has gone after is the ability to try and out-run people.

"He's a smart player who was a very good runner. He has probably just tried to make the very good runner a bit of a trick for him, so hopefully from that point of view it will work pretty well for him."


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Source: AAP


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