Essendon could have up to six new faces in the side that travels to Adelaide next weekend - among them three seasoned campaigners in Matthew Allan, Justin Murphy and Mark Alvey. Youngster Tristan Cartledge and recent draftees Kepler Bradely and Brent Stanton might also make the trip.
""It will be a very different side to the one that got beaten in last year's semi-final. And you can throw Adam Ramanauskas into the mix as well - he didn't play in that game. That, plus the fact it is a new season will mean what happened a few months ago will be the last thing on our mind,"" Harvey said. ""And I'm sure it will be the same for Port Adelaide. They know it’s a brand new season.""
As with Essendon, Port Adelaide will have some players missing through injury while some seasoned players are no longer at the club. ""It appears for the first time in a few years that they will be putting some young players on the ground. They have been a very experienced unit in the past,"" Harvey said.
While the Bombers will go into the match high on confidence after a solid Wizard Cup campaign, the record books would suggest the club struggles to win in Adelaide. Essendon has played 15 games at the venue and have managed to win just four of those.
""Every ground has its peculiarities. AAMI Stadium tends to get very slippery under foot in night games as the dew settles. But that won’t be the case in Round 1 as it is a day game on Sunday afternoon,"" Harvey said. ""I can’t really put my finger on why we haven’t won games over there. Key players in lead up. I do know that for a lot of those games we have been without a number of key players.""
