Port Adelaide's injury 'luck' has flipped in a matter of days between selection this week and Saturday's Qualifying Final defeat to Brisbane, with a trio of Power plays facing a race against the clock to feature in next week's semi-final meeting with GWS.
The Power were already without veteran forward Charlie Dixon for the 48-point loss at the Gabba due to a foot issue, with Ken Hinkley's injury list growing further over the week as captain Tom Jonas sustained a calf injury at training on Thursday that could bring his last season in the AFL to an early end.
To make matters worse, Jonas' replacement, Trent McKenzie, rolled his ankle during the Lions encounter, showing frustration with another setback as he limped from the field in the second half.
While McKenzie was able to return to the field, the ailment added to an interrupted campaign for the senior defender, who had made his return from a PCL injury this week and had been hampered by ankle issues in the past.
Fellow defender Dylan Williams' night was brought to an abrupt close due to a hamstring issue, potentially forcing further changes to Hinkley's plans for next week.
Williams will undergo scans in the coming days with what was labelled as a "soft" hamstring injury by Hinkley, who is hoping the young flanker will be available again this year. For McKenzie, the Power coach conceded the former Sun will "need every minute of next week to be available".
"Rolled his ankle, he's had a number of them this year unfortunately," Hinkley said of McKenzie post-game.
"That's what happens when you do an ankle probably early in the year, they can be repeat offenders ankles, and when you land badly they can go.
"He was heavily strapped and looked after as best he can, but it's just what happens.
"We'll take the load off that ankle straightaway. So you'll see him on crutches probably, but shouldn't panic around that. He'll need every minute of next week to be available. That's reality."
Jonas would've been the likely inclusion for McKenzue had he too not sustained a setback of his own in the final minutes of the club's main training sessions earlier this week.
The retiring defender was set to press is case for a spot in Hinkley's premiership plans, only for an "unlucky" run of injuries to now potentially open the door for a third option to face GWS.
"We were lucky on Thursday and we're back to unlucky on Saturday night, because Tom's done a calf injury and Trent's hurt his ankle," Hinkley said.
"We'll have to make do with what we have available. I'm optimistic that that's still strong enough and good enough. I don't think that's a problem.
"Tonight we played well enough to hit the lead in the second quarter, up here against a team that hasn't lost on this ground. We put them under some pressure early, we just couldn't sustain it for long enough."
Port Adelaide are "optimistic" Dixon will be available to play at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night, however the club will be left with a selection dilemma in their forward third after young tall Ollie Lord booted four goals to be the leading target in attack against the Lions.
All of Dixon, Lord, Todd Marshall and Jeremy Finlayson haven't played in the same game together, while Dixon and Lord have only combined once.
"We're building towards him being back and being available," Hinkley said of Dixon.
"Whether that's exactly next week, we'll work through the week at this stage, we would say he's in the optimistic basket but not necessarily in the team."
The Power will now take the long road to be any chance of securing a second AFL premiership, with a win over the Giants now placing them on a course to meet with minor premieres Collingwood at the MCG in a fortnight.
The Power's most recent two finals series saw them book a home preliminary final following strong starts to the post-season, only to lose both chances of booking a grand final berth.
Hinkley said the longer route might be "the way for us to go", with the Power to take some confidence out of their 51-point win out of GWS in Round 22 as they look toward their must-win match.
"We'll be fine, we earned the opportunity to play again. We worked really hard all year to get that opportunity,"
"Obviously we would have preferred not to use it but we now get to use it. We'll be ready to go and looking forward to the opportunity to play.
"We played GWS at Adelaide Oval not that long ago and we had a nice strong win. We'll bring the Port crowd, which is nice to have them back on our side, and hopefully they're nice and loud too. We'll give them a reason to be boisterous and loud.
"2020 and '21 didn't work so maybe this is the right way for us. Maybe this is the way for us to go. We've got no choice. We're going that way. We're going to give it a mighty crack and we expect to play really well next week and win."
The AFL confirmed on Sunday morning that Port Adelaide will host GWS at Adelaide Oval at 7:10pm local time.
