Port Adelaide's players are throwing support behind their "ultimate leader" Connor Rozee as fears ease of another knee injury to forward Mitch Georgiades.
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Rozee will miss Port's trip to Geelong to play the Cats on Friday night after gambling, and losing, on a hamstring injury.
The Power playmaker was hurt against St Kilda but opted to play against Adelaide, but again failed to finish the game.
After Port slumped to a 30-point loss to the Crows, coach Ken Hinkley took the blame for the Rozee decision.
"It has been a good learning from Ken and Connor, listening to their comments," Power midfielder Ollie Wines told reporters on Tuesday.
"Obviously I can't comment on how a certain player feels but Connor felt really good last week going into the game and that decision was made.
"And ultimately, in hindsight, it wasn't the right decision but I think at the time, they felt pretty comfortable with it."
Wines recently went through a similar scenario - he hurt a hamstring and missed Port's round five game.
"I had a hamstring a couple of weeks ago and I was very close to saying 'yeah, I'd play' but I didn't in the end," he said.
"But it all comes down to I guess this severity of it and what you can do during the week and Connor was able to train during the week.
"Obviously hindsight is a powerful thing and we look back on it, he wouldn't have played but at the time he felt really good.
"He has had a lot of support around him, we have got full faith in Connor and him as captain leading us.
"And we understand that every decision he makes is for the betterment of the team, he's our ultimate leader, so we'll move on from it.
"He's our captain, we want him out there every opportunity we get and if he thinks he's right, he'll go out and play."
Georgiades copped a blow to his right knee during the defeat to Adelaide.
The agile attacker only returned to AFL ranks in round five from having reconstructive surgery on the same knee.
"He got the knock on his knee, a bit of bruising but I think he's pretty good," Wines said.
Defender Lachie Jones will miss the Cats clash after suffering a low-grade hamstring injury.
Australian Associated Press
