Port Adelaide veteran Peter Burgoyne will be eligible for selection next week following his one game ban for turning up "in an unfit state" for a Power training session a month ago.
But the incident will not read well for the uncontracted Burgoyne when Port Adelaide's list management team sits down to decide which players still have an AFL future at Alberton.
Though Burgoyne has long been an established star, his age (30), history of soft tissue injuries and sporadic bouts of off-field trouble will all be factored into whatever deal he is offered at season's end.
Burgoyne was thought to be chasing a contract more generous than Port was prepared to concede prior to his suspension.
Power assistant coach Jason Cripps acknowledged that Port have a long list of players with clouded futures, especially as maximum room must be found for youth prior to this year's pivotal draft, the last before AFL expansion clubs gain first access to the cream of under-age talent.
Other club stalwarts facing a difficult negotiating period include Brendon Lade and Michael Wilson, who will join Burgoyne in the SANFL tomorrow.
"In terms of our list management, Peter's like every other player on the list at the moment, we'll assess that at the end of the year, we're looking at a lot of players," Cripps said today.
"Nick Lower, Nathan Lonie, Greg Bentley, they've all come in and done some fantastic things, Fabian Deluca, and we'll continue down that path then assess it all at the end of the year.
"You take in a lot of factors, on and off the field, but we certainly don't look at any particular incident in isolation, we look at the whole package, what a player's got to offer the playing group on and off the field, what they bring to the group."
Cripps said Burgoyne's was a test case for the strength of Port's leadership program, which like many AFL clubs was built upon the teachings of Leading Teams founder Ray McLean.
"The (leadership group) model only gets truly tested when there's a little adversity, whether it's losing games, loss of form, injury or mistakes made off the field, and until those incidents occur you don't really test it," he said.
"Last year we had it in place, we were winning a lot of games and made the grand final and probably things went along really well and we didn't have many issues to deal with.
"This year we've had many with players in terms of form, players with their injuries, losing eight games by under 17 points, there's a lot of adversity there, and how you deal with that will dictate whether or not you become a better team and a better club."
