RICHMOND assistant coach Brendon Lade admits he was taken aback to see Port Adelaide name Jarrad Redden as the club's only recognised ruckman for Saturday's clash.

The Power dropped both Matthew Lobbe and Brent Renouf from the side that lost to North Melbourne last weekend, leaving Redden to play a lone hand in the ruck.

Lade said the 22-year-old would have his work cut out.

"It was a bit strange when I saw the sides yesterday... it's very tough to ruck a whole game. (Todd) Goldstein's probably the last one who's doing that by himself," Lade said.

"West Coast played a lot better last week with both (Dean) Cox and (Nic) Naitanui playing well, so most teams are playing those two rucks now."

Injured Port Adelaide defender Jackson Trengove insisted Redden had demanded his place in the team after an outstanding fortnight in the SANFL.

He's booted eight goals for Woodville/West Torrens in the past two matches and while he'll be the Power's only recognised ruckman on Saturday, Trengove said Justin Westhoff would lend quality support.

"[Redden is] going to have to do a fair chunk of the work. Obviously they might bring Westhoff up to help out - I mean 'Hoff' is 200cm and can jump, so I'm guessing he'll have to help out at times," Trengove said.

"Hoff's a very flexible player and he's able to go forward, back or in the ruck.

"When Reddo needs a spell, Hoff will probably do it."

Lade hosed down the rivalry between Troy Chaplin and his former Power teammates after the Richmond defender's disparaging comments about Port Adelaide's coaching structure during his time at the club.

He said one of the biggest criticisms he had of his old side was that "the coaching just wasn't there".

Lade said Chaplin would be nervous about playing the Power but that it wouldn't be much to worry about.

"He'll have some butterflies, I'm sure there will be some banter between the Port and Richmond players, but that's all part of it," he said.

"'Chappy' chose to come to our club and we're very happy he did."

Trengove, too, chose to ignore his former teammate's comments, insisting the club had bigger fish to fry.

"We obviously did see the comments – it's not really a big deal," he said.

"He's said what he wanted to say, we've got bigger things on our plate this week.

"Comments are comments."

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