Port Adelaide expect to regain ruckman Dean Brogan for Sunday's pivotal AFL match against Hawthorn.

The Power steeled themselves for the Hawks' "unsociable football" with a long physical training session on Wednesday.

It was something of a risk, given the number of players already carrying niggles, but coach Mark Williams had no qualms about berating his men to greater effort in a series of one-on-one drills.

"Those guys were some of the blokes who felt they possibly let down the team on the weekend," said rover David Rodan.

"... It was just the fundamentals of our game, you've got to get in there, get the hard ball and go from there, I think we maybe went away from that a little on the weekend.

"(Hawthorn have) got a great midfield, we know if we're going to compete and win we need to compete with the (Sam) Mitchells, (Brad) Sewells and (Luke) Hodges in there, so we've definitely got to bring our best and the more training we do like that the better."

Brogan's assorted physical issues, including a fragile back, shoulder and rib problems and a corked thigh, mean he will need to be significantly patched up to play against the Hawks, but Rodan admitted the Power could not afford to lose him again.

"We know it's going to be a very big game this week if we're going to push into the eight, at this time of year a lot of players are playing with some sort of injury," he said.

"I'm not sure what we're going to do with Dean but he's obviously very important to our side and the more key players you get in there the better it is for us.

"He gives us good leverage in there (the centre), just to get hands to it and then we can work our way out of stoppage. We'll see how he goes, I don't know yet but hopefully we'll have him back this week."

Rodan has signed a new three-year deal to keep him at the Power until at least 2012, untold riches for a player who arrived at the club almost as an afterthought after being dumped by Richmond in 2006.

"I definitely wouldn't have thought when I got picked up by Port Adelaide that I'd be here right now," he said.

"I'm just very happy to get the second chance to show I can still get out there and for the club to show faith in me it's a pretty proud feeling and hopefully I can repay them in coming years."

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