PORT Adelaide veteran Dean Brogan says he’s not taking his spot in the side for granted, despite being the only experienced ruckman on the club’s list.

Brogan, 31, assumed the mantle of No.1 big man at Alberton in 2008 when premiership player Brendon Lade struggled to reproduce his All-Australian form.

Lade provided solid support for Brogan last year, playing all 22 games before announcing his retirement at the end of the season.

Lade’s decision to hang up the boots left a gaping hole in the Power’s ruck department.

None of his potential successors, Matthew Lobbe, Jackson Trengove, Jarrad Redden, Daniel Stewart and Daniel Bass, has played an AFL game, prompting the club to recruit ex-Carlton and Collingwood utility Cameron Cloke during the offseason.

But Brogan says he’s wary of the internal competition.

In 2008 he watched as Lade was sent back to the SANFL while the Power promoted youth. With the club entering another rebuilding phase, Brogan said he didn’t want to meet a similar fate.

“I’m approaching this season the same as I approach every year," Brogan told afl.com.au. "In the past we’d go into the season with myself and Ladey and if one of us went down the other would step up. Now, it’s me and then six other guys fighting for a position.

“It’s pretty competitive and I need to make sure I’m on my A-game because if I don’t stay sharp and keep improving my spot will be gone.”

The once injury-prone ruckman has learned to better manage his body over the past three years, playing 47 of the last 50 games.

Such careful management has often required him to sit out large chunks of pre-season training, but the former NBL basketballer said he’d done everything asked of him this summer.

“I’m feeling really good for a 31-year-old and I’m getting looked after. Us older blokes don’t do as much as the others, but compared to other pre-seasons I’ve done pretty much everything,” he said.

“I’m 31-years-old, but my body and my mind feel like I’m 20 still. I feel really good and hanging out with 18 and 19-year-olds probably keeps me young.”

When Lade retired, Brogan also took over the mantle as Port Adelaide’s oldest player.

The Power will start the season with just nine players aged over 25 years, having lost experienced hands Lade, Toby Thurstans and Shaun and Peter Burgoyne through trades and retirement.

The midfield has been the hardest hit area, with in excess of 630 games experience going out of the group since the end of last season.

Brogan said it would be a challenge to get the new midfield group working together come round one.

“We’ve been a strong midfield group ever since I’ve been here. We’ve been very skilled and very quick, but the dynamics have changed,” Brogan said.

“Guys like Hamish Hartlett, Travis Boak and Matty Broadbent will play more on the ball, so there are a lot of new faces. We have to do a lot of bonding because you need to have your ruckmen and midfielders on the same page and we’re doing that now.

“But the midfield has always been a big strength of ours and I’d like to keep it like that."

Dean Brogan averaged 71.9 points as a ruckman in last year's Toyota AFL Dream Team.

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