PORT Adelaide's decision to neglect a crying need and overlook key forward James Sellar at pick No. 5 could come back to haunt it, particularly after he ended up at archrival Adelaide at the weekend.

But the Power is adamant the player it chose ahead of Sellar - midfielder Travis Boak - is a rare talent who can help shore up its midfield stocks for years.

Adding Boak, who it is said has some Nick Dal Santo and Robert Harvey traits, to a midfield which already includes AFL Rising Star Danyle Pearce, the electrifying Shaun Burgoyne.

Prolific possession-winner Kane Cornes, Peter Burgoyne, Steven Salopek, Domenic Cassisi and the emerging Adam Thomson guarantees Port will have a strong on-ball brigade for many years.

But in neglecting Sellar, has Port left itself short-handed in attack? And will the fact that the 195cm powerhouse will now be applying his trade at Adelaide add to the pain for the Power, should he, as expected, turn out to be a star?

"I suppose it could," Port football operations manager Peter Rohde said yesterday.

"And to be honest we're very surprised James slipped so far in the draft too. We rate him very, very highly. But our philosophy was to go for the best available talent with our first pick. And we rated Boak just ahead of Sellar."

Boak, who had been tipped to go to Geelong at pick seven, is a class act with good speed and tremendous ballwinning ability. He averaged 25 possessions in 10 games for the Geelong Falcons this year and his 2.96 second 20m sprint at the draft camp put him in the top 15 per cent.

"He has freakish ability," AFL talent manager Kevin Sheehan said, adding Boak can win the ball in traffic as well as run hard through the lines.

Rohde argued that Port addressed some of its key forward needs in securing Woodville-West Torrens' Paul Stewart with pick 23 and Central District's Justin Westhoff at No. 71.

But Stewart, 190cm, played his senior football this year with the Eagles as a midfielder.

Captain Warren Tredrea remains the key to Port's forward line but he is coming off major knee surgery and turns 28 next month.

There does not appear to be an obvious long-term replacement for him with Damon White still yet to really prove himself and other options Ryan Willits and Michael Pettigrew seemingly better suited to defence.

Rohde said Port would look for more key forwards in the pre-season and rookie drafts.

THE Power's biggest draft steal was lightweight small forward/midfielder Nathan Krakouer.

At just 61kg, he is jockey-size but he is tremendously gifted and was a super pick-up at No. 39. The fastest player at this year's draft camp (2.83 sec over 20m), Krakouer is lightning-quick and has a great eye for goal.

Sheehan and Port rated him as a top-20 selection.

"He'll take some time to develop because he's got to put some weight on but he's got some real talent and we were shocked to get him with that pick," Rohde said.