Power coach Mark Williams took a glass half full attitude to the Power’s 7-point victory over the Lions and even took a moment out for a message to his wife in his post-match media conference. Here’s exactly what he had to say.

Firstly, happy birthday to my wife. It’s been a long weekend, I haven’t seen her. I’m sure she’s enjoying the win – the kids would be happy. Teams that kick straight obviously have a good chance of winning. I thought we kicked straight and Brisbane didn’t. In the last quarter, it looked like it was an avalanche but we kicked 3 goals 3 and they kicked 7 goals so, it was pretty similar scoring shots.

It was a tough night, having come from the break and coming up to Brisbane. A lot of our players have never played here (Gabba) before. To beat Brisbane at any time is terrific. Obviously they’re in a development phase, the same as us. We’re 8 (wins) and 5 (losses), so we’re moving ahead.

I thought we got absolutely smashed at the stoppages, so we’ll have to work harder at those. Brisbane kept going at it – they’d be pretty pleased. We established a pretty good lead but couldn’t finish it off, which was disappointing. As I said, when a side kicks 7 goals straight to 3.3 it means that you still have an opportunity in the last quarter. Certainly 7 goals is one quarter is too many and we’re disappointed with that.

What do you think happened in the last quarter?

People get tired, there’s no doubt we were tired. People lose their decision-making when they’re tired, the ability to chase, the ability to spoil, all those things are just one step away. Brisbane had nothing much to lose, they were a fair way down, so they were free flowing and running forward. They’ve got some great players – Drummond kicked two goals from outside 50 metres from handball receives, and that doesn’t happen too often.

What did you like tonight and what didn’t you like?

I liked the fact our team was caught and had the poise to have the last two shots on goal – that was fantastic. The will to win. We probably didn’t start too well, but for the next two and a half quarters we probably took over the game. So, not being in the best starting position, away from home, all that was good.

I thought Daniel Motlop was outstanding, coming back from a long term injury. It was terrific work for the fitness people and medical staff to pass him fit, so well done there.

What didn’t I like? Let’s not get too greedy, we got a win and we’re 8 and 5, so we’ll move on and work on things for next week.

Did you think it was holding the ball against Cornes in the last quarter there?

I noted with interest the free kick count.

Do you want to elaborate on that?

Not on your life.

I don’t get to see your team train a lot…?

Speaking of training, it would be lovely to train on the centre pitch (which was covered up for Port Adelaide’s Friday training session), so you can actually get an opportunity to move and change direction and work out what the bounce will do. It’s just amateurish from the Gabba Trust not to allow that.

I know Brisbane didn’t train on the ground either on Friday. When you come interstate, everyone can train on our ground (AAMI Stadium) and I expect the same right to train all over the ground. It’s an absolute joke and it’s been going on for 10 years.

Matty Primus did his knee on this ground and it was hard as a rock and it was a joke, so it’s about time someone took responsibility and changed it.

What are you suggesting they do?

The big picture thing would be to have a drop in pitch, because they have one test a year here. All the people that play AFL would like to think they’ve got a safe environment. It’s not safe. It’s hard as a rock and it’s a joke. And I’m saying it’s about time someone took responsibility for it. I don’t think they’ve got it right.

What did you think of that play in the centre square with Brogan and Cornes late in the game?

It was brilliant. It was good leadership in the centre square. They took control. It was nice to see. And even Brett Ebert, who had a shocking night – for a player to keep their mind on the job and know that they still can give something that can influence the result – it was great for Brett to kick the last two shots on goal.

Your clearances have been an issue for a while…

No, we’ve been very good in clearances.

Yeah, but your numbers have been all over the shop and you haven’t always got the best results from them?

I think we’ve kicked the third most goals from stoppages in the AFL prior to this game, so they have been good. Probably the goals against us have been too high. Getting the mix of people in there (at stoppages) and getting the mix of how far you play defensively is something we still need to do. I’m sure the opposition don’t want us kicking as many goals as we do either.

At 8 and 5 where are you?

We’re in the mix. We’re ahead of where we were last year. 8 and 5 is a terrific start for a side that finishes 12th last year and for a side with the second least experienced list and third youngest in the AFL. We hear about other clubs and how well they’re doing with those sorts of numbers. Our experience and our age says that we’ve got a bright future ahead, but I guarantee we have a lot of work to do as well.

Have you bee n able to put your finger on why you had the slump, losing four straight?

We played Geelong and they’re very good, we played Sydney in Sydney, that’s not an easy game and Hawthorn are at the top of the ladder. So for three of the games, you can say we played opposition that were better than us, so you probably have to cop that. When you are a developing side you do cop the fact that some teams are better than you, what’s important is that you are learning from them and continuing to keep the faith. To win the last two games off of a four game losing streak has been good.

Are you better placed to take on the Bulldogs and West Coast over the next two weeks?

Both of those are very experienced sides moving forward. Bulldogs made finals last year and they’re certainly trying to make the top four this year. And West Coast, along with Sydney, have been the best side for the last couple of years. So you have to understand that there are some huge challenges ahead of us, and we as a club understand and look forward to the challenges, but are realistic about where we are and where we’re going. Our long term goal won’t be compromised by little hiccups along the way.

You’ve had a couple of those little hiccups in the last quarter last week and again tonight. What do you take from that to ensure that a similar thing (last quarter fade-out) doesn’t happen?

There’s nothing you can do to ensure. There’s an opposition out there that have a lot of pride. There’s a coach with huge experience and they’ve (Brisbane) got about 8 triple premiership players in their side and they’re not just going to put up with being where they were. We will find some things that we could have done better. I thought our use of the ball wasn’t good, we kicked the ball out of bounds, there was a deliberate out of bounds. But we still had six shots on goal and they had seven, so there’s something from that as well. Certainly we weren’t satisfied with it and add together with the Essendon game, you’d say ‘yeah, not good’, but I think our last quarters have been terrific until the last two games.

What can you do to get better in those situations?

Our coaches work terrifically well with the analysis, so there will be a lot of work done and then we will try and take it into the training and we will try and get players to make good decisions at the right time. These experiences are invaluable for bigger games in the future. If we were sitting here and had lost, we still would have learnt some stuff, but to actually suck it up and get ahead again, I’m sure our supporters would be genuinely pleased with the result.

When a team does get a run on, you haven’t in the past two weeks tried to hold the ball up (play tempo footy). Is that an admission that you’re no good at it?

There are two or three or four different ways of trying to stop momentum and at the moment we’re not good at any of them. We’ll keep working on it. It then comes to our supporters saying ‘you’re trying to kick backwards and sidewards and hold up the game’, but we didn’t do that tonight. We as a club respect the people who pay their money to watch the game and we’d like to play football that they’re interested in coming to watch.

Would it be fair to say that you’re two years away from doing it really well?

I would think so. Clubs have been doing this for a hell of a long time compared to us. I didn’t think we had the right mix of people. I didn’t think there was enough run in our game by the end. There were some injuries and there were some players that lacked the running ability, so that does cause concern when you’re trying to run out a game as well. Without doubt the Western Bulldogs will load up with a thousand of them (runners) so we need to be understanding of that.

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