Schulz suffered a scratched cornea in ‘The Showdown’ a fortnight ago, but his possible return will no doubt play a huge part in opposition coach Brad Scott’s approach at selection.
"We're hopeful he'll play and we know how important he is to our structure,” Power captain Domenic Cassisi said on Monday.
Last time the two teams met, Schulz kicked three goals and pulled down eight marks, and in 2010 he managed a career-best haul of seven.
Luke Delaney has been solid deep in defence in five games this year and will hope for first crack at Schulz if he plays, while Nathan Grima, Lachlan Hansen and Cameron Pedersen are among those vying for a recall and capable of holding down a key post.
Cassisi says North’s below-par performance on Sunday will only provide motivation for its road trip to Adelaide.
“You know with North Melbourne they are going to come and have a crack, no matter where they are on the ladder,” he added.
“History has shown they’ve just got this ability to respond when they’ve had a loss, so we need to be aware of that. They’ll come over firing. They are desperate for a win.”
Port Adelaide has lost its last six games after a round one win, but will persist with its high risk game style.
“We saw a few times (against Fremantle) when we took the game on and got the ball back into the corridor, took a risky kick out of the back half, we were able to go inside 50 pretty quickly. That’s our template - we need to keep working at that.
“The losses have been disappointing, but I think when you strip it all back we’ve seen some improvement, not only in our performances but in our list.
“We keep evolving and we are on the right track. We were disappointing against Richmond, but we’ve pushed some really good sides.”
