PORT Adelaide spearhead Jay Schulz has joined fellow forward Justin Westhoff in backing John Butcher to play against the Western Bulldogs in Darwin on Saturday.

Butcher played his first AFL game in almost a year last weekend against Geelong and clearly lacked confidence, spraying out on the full two straight-forward shots at goal and managing only 11 disposals.

But Schulz said the 21-year-old's presence made for a more dangerous forward line and helped free up the other key targets.

"Defenders know how talented he is and therefore they have to pay a bit more close attention to him.

"I know that our midfielders with their ball use looking up the ground and seeing me and Butch there instead of just me, it gives them a lot more confidence.

"They know that when the ball hits the ground or in the air he's going to attack it as best he can.

"All the players back him in; we know all the coaches do as well and hopefully he'll be out there again on the weekend – I'm pretty sure he will be."

Schulz is regarded as one of the best kicks for goal in the AFL and has missed just eight of his 29 shots this season.

The sharpshooter insisted Butcher's goal kicking would turn around after "one of those days", advising his young teammate to focus on the future.

"I said to him after the game, someone's always told me that as long as you're having the shots, the goals will come – so I'd be more worried if he wasn't having any shots at goal at all," Schulz said.

"The fact that he's having shots is always a positive … eventually it'll go the right way.

"You've got to try and get them to put [a missed shot] out of their head as quickly as possible and just think about the next ball – that's what I always do.

"You can't dwell on things to much during a game, there's so much going on and there's so many things changing that there's no time."

The Power's forward line is expected to receive a significant boost by the return of pint-sized livewire Jake Neade.

The 19-year-old was rested last weekend and the forward line missed his creativity and defensive pressure in attack.

"Neadey's got that cheeky grin and runs around the place; it's his birthday today so he's even happier again," Schulz said.

"He'll come straight back in again I'm sure and he's one guy we really need in our side for our forward 50 tackling pressure, and getting up the ground he works really hard.

"It's fantastic as a first-year player to be able to bring that to the group."

Harry Thring is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.