Port Adelaide’s Willem Drew tips Zak Butters to play through pain against Hawthorn in sudden death AFL final

Port Adelaide expect Zak Butters to play through pain - and for Hawthorn to target the star midfielder’s sore ribs in Friday night’s semi-final.

Butters was substituted out of the Power’s qualifying final capitulation to Geelong last Thursday night.

The dual All Australian wore a pink cap at Tuesday training to denote no contact but took part in some light drills.

“Obviously he’s in the pink hat so didn’t train fully but when he was out there he was moving well,” teammate Willem Drew told reporters after training.

“He’s giving himself every chance to play. Obviously (we have) got a couple more days to see how he pulls up but hoping to have him out there.

“He will probably do a little bit of contact training (later) to make sure but he’s been all cleared of some structural damage.

“Butts is probably one of the most competitive people I have ever met - if he can play any sport and he’s fit enough to play, he’ll be out there.”

Drew said Hawthorn would physically test out Butters’ injury during the sudden-death semi.

“I’ve got no doubt, if he’s got sore ribs, he will probably get a few hip and shoulders and whatnot,” he said.

“But I’m sure he’ll be expecting that. And he won’t be out there if he’s not right.”

The Power face exiting the finals with consecutive losses for a second-straight season after being trounced on home turf by Geelong.

The 84-point loss to the Cats followed defeats by 23 points, 48 points and 71 points in Port’s previous finals but Drew denied the club was mentally scarred.

“Personally I don’t think so, but our record obviously isn’t great,” he said.

Power players were summoned to a review on Saturday - earlier than usual post-game - and had “open and honest conversations” about their latest finals flop.

“It was probably more just around our work-rate and effort - and if we don’t show up with that, then we’re probably no hope of winning,” Drew said.

“It was a massive game for us and for some reason we didn’t show up.”

Asked why, Drew said the exact reasons remained unclear.

“It’s probably a difficult thing to sort of say ‘this was the reason, or this and that’,” he said.

“It’s hard to pinpoint one thing ... we definitely don’t want the same thing to happen again.”

The Hawks enter the semi-final after a rousing 37-point elimination final victory over the Western Bulldogs.

Hawthorn forward Jack Ginnivan responded to his ex-Collingwood teammate and now Sydney ruckman star Brodie Grundy’s Instagram post celebrating the Swans’ qualifying final win over GWS by writing: “see u in 14 days”.

Drew said Ginnivan’s reaction had been noted, but dismissed it giving Port any extra motivation.

“I haven’t got much to say about that. It doesn’t really bother me,” he said.

“I suppose it’s up to individuals to do what they do and they can do whatever they want, so that’s fine.”