Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley says there’s no lingering doubt about the fitness of defender Tom Jonas for Saturday’s AFL preliminary final against Hawthorn.

Jonas suffered a corked hip and was substituted during Port’s semi-final win against Fremantle last weekend.

But Hinkley has declared the versatile backman a certain starter against the Hawks in the MCG encounter.

“I was pretty comfortable all week that Tommy was going to be okay, it was a corkie and they do come up and we would be surprised if they didn’t,” Hinkley told reporters on Friday.

“He’s fine … there isn’t anything wrong with him and there can’t be. If you’re going to play a prelim final you have to be fit.

“It’s important because Tommy is a leader of our group too, he’s a significant player for us. But it’s not so much just the one position he plays, it’s what he brings to the rest of the team.”

Clearing Jonas to play allowed Hinkley to select an unchanged team, which the coach said was vital as the Power chase their first grand final berth since 2007.

“It’s one of the real key ingredients to successful teams, you have to be able to settle down, lock away with what you believe in, what you trust, and let them go to work,” Hinkley said.

“We have been able to do that for four or five weeks and our form has probably reflected that.”