Port Adelaide has not lost to St Kilda at home since the club’s inception in 1997 and Williams was prepared for a change of tact from Ross Lyon’s Saints.
"I think St Kilda can play a couple of different styles of footy," he said. "They can play that fast, shoot-out style and then we saw the game they played against Sydney earlier in the year where it was five or six goals apiece.
"They’re a well-drilled unit and there is a lot of what Sydney does in the St Kilda game plan. Ross [Lyon] would’ve looked at how Sydney played against us and we’ll be assuming there will be a lot of tagging and defensive work put on our players."
The Power trained at AAMI Stadium on Friday with forward Brett Ebert the only player not to complete the 45-minute session.
Ebert is still managing a groin injury, which plagued the second half of his standout 2007 season.
"It was planned through the week that Brett wouldn’t do the whole session," Williams said.
"Brett probably had his best game for the year last week and it’s been a struggle for him. We have to continually monitor him and look after him, but I guarantee you he’ll play."
Last time these two sides met at AAMI Stadium, the Power prevailed in torrential rain. Wet weather is again the forecast for Saturday’s game and Williams was confident in his team’s ability to play in the conditions.
Port Adelaide conceded a 42-point three-quarter-time lead when rain helped the Brisbane Lions over the line in round four but the coach said his team had learned from the experience.
"If it’s those sort of slippery conditions again, we’ll certainly play wet weather football," he said. "At the same time, the players have still got the ability to pick and choose when they’re going to handball and run.
"The message [at three-quarter time] against Brisbane wasn’t completely wrong and the players’ understanding of that message wasn’t completely wrong, so there’s a margin in between and if we get that right, we’ll be okay."
The Power, buoyed by their first win of the season, were also confident of preventing the fade-outs which have arguably cost them three wins in 2008.
"We’ve come off a limited preparation and, hopefully, we’re just starting to get it right," Williams said.
"Most games we’ve played three quarters of very, very, very fine football and the one quarter has wrecked a few of our results. We hope to keep pushing that and get it better and better as the weeks go on."
