Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Port Adelaide won’t rush Ollie Wines into making a decision on his future, with the Brownlow medallist to be given more time to decide whether to continue his glittering career.
Wines has been rested for Saturday night’s clash with Collingwood at the MCG as part of a management plan to have him fit and firing for next week’s Showdown.
The 31-year-old comes out of contract at the end of this season and coach Josh Carr says there is no rush for Wines to make a decision on his future.
“We’re having chats and having talks and that’ll come towards the end of the year,” Carr said on Friday.
“There’s no real reason (that it’s taking a bit longer) other than Ollie wants time to think about it, and obviously it’s around his body and whether he thinks he can keep going.
“But at this point we just put it off to the end of the year and we’ll have a discussion then.”
Wines has strung together 10 consecutive games since missing the first three rounds of the season, but his rest against the Magpies won’t be a one-off.
“We want to make sure we are looking after him,” Carr said of the 283-game veteran.
“We want the best out of Ollie and a fresh Ollie to be able to get in the contest and just do his best work. We don’t want to run him into the ground.”
Port have recalled wingman Jack Lukosius following his two-month block of groin rehabilitation and two games in the SANFL.
But defender Kane Farrell (groin soreness) will miss and is no guarantee to return for next week’s clash with Adelaide.
‘He had the week off, pulled up really well, and then went out and played a really good game and got through the game, no problems and then pulled up poorly,” Carr said of Farrell.
“So we’ve had to reassess what that looks like now. We’re not sure what the long-term plan looks like right now, we’ve just got to see what happens this week.”
Port (4-9) and Collingwood (5-7-1) are among a logjam of teams fighting for a Wildcard berth.
The injury-hit Pies have won just one of their past six games, but Carr refuses to write off a team containing Nick and Josh Daicos.
And in what could prove to be a delight for fans, Carr threw his support behind a dream head-to-head match-up between Zak Butters and Nick Daicos.
“Absolutely,” Carr said.
“The best versus the best … we all like to see that.”
Collingwood will unleash 19-year-old debutant Sam Swadling as well as handing recalls to Steele Sidebottom and Ned Long, but Brayden Maynard (dislocated shoulder) and Scott Pendlebury (managed) will miss.
