Hartlett is Port's lethal weapon

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley watches Hamish Hartlett during a drill. Picture: Sarah Reed. Source: The Advertiser

HAMISH Hartlett is Port Adelaide's long bomber.

When the ball's in his hands, good things happen.

No Power player is more effective with the football in his possession 40m or deeper from goal.

The man known as "The Jet" because of his class and the way he moves so gracefully around the football field has a lethal right boot which makes him one of the AFL's most dangerous players.

Of Hartlett's 25 goals in his 50-game career, 18 - or 72 per cent - have come from outside 40m. And 11 have been kicked from outside 50.

It is an extraordinary percentage of the midfielder/half-back's goals, and highlights just how deadly his laser-like right leg is.

Of current AFL players, only six have better hit rate percentages from long distances than Hartlett.

They are Hawthorn's Grant Birchall (90 per cent) and the injured Matt Suckling (79.2), West Coast's Shannon Hurn (87.2), Richmond's Chris Newman (75.8), Collingwood's Ben Johnson (75.7) and Sydney's Martin Mattner (72.5). All are renowned as superboots.

Hartlett - finally fit and firing after an injury-plagued first four years in the AFL - has become Port's go-to guy.

The Power wants the ball in his hands 60m from goal and is prepared to dish it off to him with handballs from set plays.

While five of his six AFL goals this year have come from outside 40m, he booted three from outside 50, including one from 65m, in the NAB Cup clash against Melbourne in Renmark.

Those statistics haven't been recorded.

"Hartsy's (Hartlett's) kicking is awesome," Port's Brad Ebert said of his midfield sidekick.

"It's so good for our team to have a player who can kick the ball so long, low and accurate as him.

"I played with Shannon (Hurn) at West Coast and he's the best kick I've seen but Hartsy's right up there. In fact he's probably as good as Hurn now."

In a season where Port has relied on its short kicking and ability to control the footy to rise dramatically up the ladder, Hartlett is the exception.

His average kick distance of 34.1m is the highest at the Power while his average metres gained per game of 496m sits second behind prolific disposal winner Kane Cornes (513m).

Hartlett's gamebreaking feats have seen him become the No. 1 target for opposition taggers who know how deadly he can be.

The 22-year-old says the attention doesn't faze him.

"It's been interesting," he said of being picked out for extra attention each week.

"If they come to me, I've got no worries about that because it gives us the opportunity to free up guys like Boaky (captain Travis Boak) and Brad (Ebert).

"If we can have a multitude of guys that are playing really well through the midfield it makes it difficult for the opposition to shut us down."

Cornes said while Hartlett's kicking was elite and had been instrumental in Port's blistering start to the year, he said his hardness at the contest should not be underestimated.

"He's so important for us," Cornes said.

"It's not only the super-skilled stuff he does for us, including his kicking, but his hardness at the footy is as good as we've got at this club.

"He is a leader of the footy club and I'm just happy he is playing for us."

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