Power coach Mark Williams paid tribute to the young brigade including the likes of Pettigrew, Surjan and Salopek and the leadership of Tredrea, Wakelin, Cornes and Lade following Saturday night’s round 5 win against the Saints. He attributed the win to the players’ ability to persist and say true to the plan.

The game was always going to be tough, especially in these conditions, and losing Michael Wilson, one of our hardest players and fittest onballers, made it difficult for the rotations. So to get that result for our club, we’re really pleased. I thought everyone contributed. I thought the backs did a wonderful job keeping them (St Kilda’s forwards) down.

Our onballers were easily beaten at half-time, but turned it around in the second half. People like Shaun (Burgoyne) had no clearances at half-time but finished with six so I was really pleased with that. The players kept believing in what they were doing and kept persisting which was certainly the theme for the night.

And I thought the forwards were outstanding, they played how we wanted them to play and they really did hold the ball in with a lot of effort and a lot of courage. Everyone would be very proud of themselves tonight and the win certainly gives us a good start to the season.

From an outsiders point of view Warren Tredrea looks to have taken another huge leap forward tonight. How did you see his performance?

I thought Warren really led from the front when not much was happening early. To his credit I think he is a step closer to coming back to what we know of him. And certainly it would be remiss of me not to talk about Darryl Wakelin, playing on Fraser and really keeping him out of the game, playing in front, taking the initiative, he will certainly enjoy 250th game. The players did him proud tonight with their effort.

In view of a 4 win – 1 loss start and a side that wasn’t expected to do too much, where are you now with what you want to achieve this year?

Two weeks ago when we lost against Adelaide it was a little bit back to the drawing board as to what we’d been doing, but having looked at Adelaide and us very closely after that game, we didn’t think we were doing too many things wrong, we just needed to adjust it a bit. Two weeks in a row trying to do that – wet conditions make it more difficult – the players and coaching staff are really looking to get back to the training track and back to work to see what else we can come up with. It’s quite a motivating and exciting time at the club to get there and see how far we can take this.

Got any expectations as to how far you can take this?

All I’m interested in is the players wanting to improve. I think Pettigrew took a big step tonight, he played outstandingly well. I thought Surjan on Milne was really good for us. I thought Salopek who has had the flu the last few weeks and nearly didn’t play against Collingwood, played well tonight. I thought Bentley played one of his best games as well which is nice. So to get those younger players playing well is what we’re looking for, and to think that Brogan, Motlop and Pearce are every chance to play this week is great.

On selection, who do you drop out of the side that’s played well over the last fortnight, given you might have three first class players ready to come back.

Well Michael Wilson will be out for sure and then after that I’m not sure. It will be pretty willing on the track. Playing on Friday night gives you the opportunity to train properly, because it was a short week this week and you don’t get the opportunity to train much, so Monday and Wednesday we will have a great hit-out and look forward to picking our best side, a side to combat Melbourne, a side who play well against us.

Two of the big issues to come out last year was your supposed lack of fitness and poor skill base. How much have you corrected those from what you’ve seen in the first five rounds?

Both areas were very diligently worked on through the pre-season. It’s something you can’t do in a week, so you have to I suppose provide the environment and then have the players willing enough to have a crack at it. In both areas they’ve moved ahead from where they were last year, but rest assured we’re going to get better and we’ve got a lot of work to do and as I said there is a lot of excitement. Probably of the wins this year, the excitement of singing the song and the ‘something to prove’ type excitement that comes from something to prove contests when you actually win them, it’s a great place to be. I know the 12 young players that have come to our club have come into a winning environment and it smells nice when it comes on Mondays.

What about the third quarters and the fact that you have outstanding third quarters this year?

That’s good. We’d want to do something in third quarters because I think in the Fremantle game we weren’t playing very well and we were down, and tonight they came back a bit at us in the second quarter. We try and show a plan at half-time, but it’s entirely up to the players to deliver it. We’ve got some great leaders out there and some great leadership. I thought Lade and (Chad) Cornes, Kane just kept at his task all night. And Mahoney, doesn’t get much rap in the forward line but he led from the front there. And as I said Shaun and Peter are brilliant players, the sort of players that obviously the AFL want to see play.

What’s the biggest difference between this year and last year?

Because we went to England, we had to train early and we had to spend a lot of time working on our style of play together and then we had new coaches come in and then new players come in, so you had to be pretty precise and smart about the way that you delivered it (plan / program) and I would think we’re in front of where we were in that regard, which is a credit to the coaches and the environment that we’re trying to create.

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