CONFIDENCE is growing at Port Adelaide that new co-captain Ollie Wines will return for its big away clash with Brisbane.
Coach Ken Hinkley said on Monday night that provided Wines makes it through training this week, the star onballer should face the Lions.
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Wines was appointed co-captain this season along with Tom Jonas, but is recovering from a pre-season water skiing accident that left him with a dislocated shoulder.
Port and Brisbane will take 2-0 records into Saturday night's Gabba clash.
"We're really hopeful he'll play ... as I sit here tonight, I'm in the high 90s, when it comes to percentages," Hinkley told AFL 360.
"It's pretty exciting, as a club and for him, to come out and be a captain in his own right with Tommy Jonas this week."
Hinkley also holds out hope that Jack Watts will play again this season, despite the severity of his leg injury.
Watts has undergone surgery following the horror lower-leg injury he received in Saturday's win over Carlton.
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The Power also lost Karl Amon for five or six weeks with a knee injury.
"He's had significant surgery – he had a partially dislocated ankle, he had a syndesmosis injury and he had a broken leg,"' Hinkley said of Watts.
"So he got one with the lot.
"But the good news is that surgery and everything has gone really well.
"He's pretty positive about his outcomes and even our doctors are quite positive that (if) things go really, really well, the season might not yet be done for Jack."
