Bobby puts hand up to tackle Kurt

Port Adelaide key defender Alipate Carlile has put his hand up to take on Kurt Tippett in his first game for Sydney. Source: News Limited

ALIPATE Carlile had just finished taking care of business against the Giants on Sunday when his attention turned to his old Crows sparring partner Kurt Tippett.

"I texted Kenny (coach Ken Hinkley) soon after we left the ground and said I wanted to play on him,'' the Port Adelaide full back revealed.

"He said `yeah, no worries', so it was pretty straightforward.

"He (Tippett) is obviously lining up with a different team now (Sydney) but it should be interesting.

"I've played on him a few times and he's a monster, so it's always a challenge.

"But I like challenges and I love playing on him.''

Carlile has Tippett's number.

The pair went head-to-head nine times when the giant 202cm Tippett wore the Crows tri-colours.

Carlile's record against him is outstanding, despite Tippett having a significant 10cm height advantage.

Tippett has only kicked eight goals on Carlile in the 610 minutes they have been dhopposed.

He has kicked multiple goals on Carlile just once three in round six, 2010.

Now Carlile is poised to tackle Tippett in different colours and he will have almost all of South Australia barracking for him when the Swans run on to AAMI Stadium tomorrow.

In an ironic twist, Tippett's Sydney debut will be at the ground where he has kicked most of his 188 goals and gave so much joy to Crows fans for five years.

Now after serving an 11-match ban for his role in the salary cap scandal which has hurt Adelaide on and off the field he returns as the enemy.

Port fans want Carlile to hold him goalless. Crows fans also want the Power full back to stitch up a player who has gone from their hero to villain.

"That will be good,'' said Carlile, who finds it strange that many Adelaide supporters will be barracking for him for the first time.

Carlile described Tippett as "a big lad'' who is a "difficult'' match-up because of his size and skill set. He modestly plays down his previous success on him.

"He's over 200cm, weighs more than 100kg and moves really well, so it's a big challenge,'' said Carlile, whose chief defensive sidekick Jackson Trengove will miss a seventh consecutive match with a foot injury.

"Kurt's a monster physically and his contested marking is a feature of his game. It was something he was renowned for at the Crows and I'm sure he's taken that with him to Sydney.

"He's got a few centimetres on me so I'll have to be a fair bit more physical (than usual).

"But everyone in our back six has a massive job and there will be a certain emphasis for each player.

"Tommy Jonas did a great job on Jeremy Cameron last week and we'll all have our jobs to do again.''

Power defensive coach Matthew Nicks said super stopper Jonas and the impressive Jack Hombsch could also spend time on Tippett but that Carlile was likely to get first crack at him.

"Bobby (Carlile) was the first one to put his hand up and say he wanted the gig,'' Nicks said.

"And that's what he should be doing. Straight after the GWS game he was on the front foot saying, `I got the job done this week (against Adam Tomlinson), give me the role on Tippett next week'.

"That's something we'll discuss more as a backs group and see what our match-ups are but I've got no doubt that Bobby will end up on Tippett at some point during the day.''

Nicks said Port's defensive preparation for the Sydney attack was unusual, given the fact that Tippett had not yet played for the club.

"It's tough,'' said Nicks.

"We've seen plenty of Kurt as an individual, with him obviously playing at the Crows, and we've studied them like you wouldn't believe, being in the same town.

"But I guess him fitting into the Sydney line-up, it will be something different, it's something that no one's seen.

"So how do you prepare for that? I guess we look at it the same as we do with most sides.

"We look at how their current forward line has been operating and we anticipate Kurt coming in and adding to that. Clearly he's going to be a really tough player to match-up on.''

Port is planning for Tippett to start at full forward and then to spend time further up the ground and in the ruck.

Nicks said while he hoped Carlile could do a good job on him, much of his club's planning revolved around team defence.

Dual Brownlow Medallist Adam Goodes who Jonas silenced in the pre-season and talls Mike Pyke and Jesse White also loom large, along with the Swans' mosquito fleet which has been hurting opposition teams on the scoreboard.

"Probably the one real focus we've had over the past month or so has been team defence the six of the guys working together,'' Nicks said.

"If you look at the past month there's been a number of match-ups where we've probably looked outsized.

"We've had Jonas and Hombsch playing as talls, even though they are not regular key backs, and 'Bobby' Carlile has spent time on mediums.

"So we'll have a look at how they (the Swans) structure up because there is a difference between Kurt playing deep inside the forward 50 and coming up the ground to centre half-forward.

"That is something we'll have to adjust to during the game.''

But all eyes will be on Tippett on Saturday.

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