Salopek eyes Port captaincy

Port Adelaide midfielder Steven Salopek wants to be a future captain of the Power but admits he'll have to add more strings to his bow to become a strong leader.

Responding to an opinion piece in the Adelaide press, Salopek was flattered and surprised by talk of him replacing Warren Tredrea as skipper.

"Obviously it would be a terrific honour and obviously it's something every kid dreams about is to captain an AFL club but I'm sticking behind Tredders at the moment," Salopek said.

"He's an outstanding captain and more importantly he's an outstanding person and to have him around the club fulfilling the duties that he does is terrific."

"To have him there as a mentor and someone to learn off is probably as good as its going to get."

The 23-year-old said his consistent form over the past 12 to 18 months and ability to communicate well with the media may be perceived as good leadership qualities.

But he admitted he was still learning to voice his opinions both on and off the field.

"I've got a lot of development left to go still in that role, a lot of speaking up, being confident in my beliefs, something that Tredders is really good at," he said.

"I still find myself sitting in the back seat a fair bit and listening to what other people say and even if I do have some belief I still sit back and don't express my opinion. They are the things I really need to work on in the next 6-12 months."

"In terms of talking on the field that's something I definitely am not good at. Our leadership group at the moment has guys that bring different aspects of leadership to the group so I'm trying to pick their pocket a fair bit and learn off all of them."

Port will be looking for plenty of leadership from Salopek when it tackles Fremantle at AAMI Stadium on Sunday.

The Power and Dockers have become fierce rivals over the past few seasons and Salopek said he's expecting another tense contest.

"There's always those nice little scraps that go on but that's just part of the game. We enjoy that rivalry and I suppose they do as well and it gets a bit heated there at times but that's the way the game is played at the moment," he said.

"It's just one of those teams that we don't get along well with but it's always a great game, great competition and a really good hit-out so we are hopefully looking forward to stringing two wins together for the first time in a while."