PORT Adelaide leadership group member Brad Ebert denies Sam Powell-Pepper's boozy late-night incident shows there's a culture problem at the Power.
The Power and the AFL are investigating an incident from the early hours of Sunday morning involving Powell-Pepper at an Adelaide nightclub.
He's the sixth Power player in the past two years to have been in trouble off the field – Jarman Impey (now with Hawthorn) and Aidyn Johnson at the end of 2016, Jackson Trengove (now with the Western Bulldogs), Paddy Ryder and Nathan Krakouer (now retired) last year.
Trengove and Ryder were subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing after scuffles outside nightclubs.
"When you look at those incidents, both times it ends up the players (Trengove and Ryder) weren't really in the wrong," Ebert said.
"To say the culture is an issue, I really disagree with.
"As a group, we are a pretty strong group and we uphold a strong set of values and standards, so I really don't believe this is a cultural issue."
Ebert confirmed Powell-Pepper broke team rules by being out past 2am and consuming an excessive amount of alcohol.
"It was more the fact he was out pretty late, and as a group, we say by two o'clock you should be making your way home," Ebert said.
"He was out past that time and the amount of alcohol, he said he had a few drinks.
"As a group, we understand you can have a few drinks, but we try not to go overboard with that."
The Power players had an eight-day break between last Saturday's five-point win against Brisbane at Adelaide Oval, and next Sunday's clash with Essendon at Etihad Stadium.
Ebert said no decision had been made about whether Powell-Pepper would be stood down from the game with the Bombers.
"Until we know the full extent of the situation, we can't really go handing out punishments or anything like that," Ebert said.
"Obviously, we're disappointed with him breaking team rules around just being out at that sort of time, but until we know the full extent of everything, we'll leave it and make the call later in the week, I guess.
"He spoke to us and explained that he was involved in something.
"He didn't really go into the full extent of the details around it.
"He seems to be handling it OK, but as you can imagine, he's a little bit rattled about the whole thing and pretty disappointed with everything."
Powell-Pepper evaded the awaiting media on Tuesday morning by arriving through a side door at the club's Alberton headquarters before the team held a closed training session.
Power chairman David Koch confirmed to radio station FIVEaa on Tuesday morning that Powell-Pepper was the player being investigated.
"A complaint has been made about Sam's behaviour," Koch said.
"We're obviously investigating it further at the moment and we should be able to have something further a bit later today.
"We want to get all the facts.
"The only fact that we do know, which is really disappointing and something the leadership group will be looking into, is the fact that he was out after curfew at a nightclub … he broke that and that will be up for the leadership group to decide any sanctions."
The Power's leadership group is captain Travis Boak, vice-captain Ollie Wines, Ebert, Hamish Hartlett, Tom Jonas, Tom Rockliff and Charlie Dixon.
Powell-Pepper, 20, is in his second season with the Power and finished third in the NAB AFL Rising Star award last year.
The powerful midfielder was the No.18 overall pick of the 2016 draft.
