PORT Adelaide coach Mark Williams has credited leadership coaches Jan Stirling and Jenny Williams with the swing in form that enabled his side to topple St Kilda on Saturday night.
 
The Power lost to Geelong by 95 points at Skilled Stadium just six days ago, but were able to put the sub-par performance behind them and come out firing against the Saints.
 
Williams refused to divulge what Stirling and Williams had said to the players in their post-match review last week, but described their impact on the team as “significant”.
 
“Jan and Jenny did a terrific job last Monday with their review of the game and (their ability) to keep the players believing in what we were doing,” Williams said.
 
“The players battled quite a lot of adversity because for a start St Kilda is a fantastic side and is really well trained, well drilled and disciplined, so to come up against a unit like that off a 100-point loss … it was a really taxing week for the club.
 
“Jenny and Jan add to the coaching mix and they are as much a part of the coaching group as the rest of them.”
 
The Power dominated play for most of the game on Saturday night, but didn’t hit the front until halfway through the final term thanks to their inaccurate goalkicking.
 
Forward Brett Ebert was the biggest culprit, kicking 2.4 but Williams said the raking left-footer had redeemed himself with a long goal at the start of the last quarter.
 
“If Brett had kicked straight tonight he would have been that far best on ground it wouldn’t have been funny. I was really pleased for him to kick that long goal into the wind that basically set up the gap that we had and put us in front,” he said.
 
Instead, influential midfielder David Rodan was judged best on ground and awarded the Peter Badcoe VC Medal.
 
Rodan picked up 27 possessions, seven clearances and a goal in the Power’s 10-point win and Williams described the Fijian’s performance in just his second game back from a knee reconstruction as nothing short of remarkable.
 
“David’s surgeon was there tonight talking to him before the game and I said to him, ‘I can’t believe you don’t do this (LARS) surgery every week with everyone who gets an ACL injury,” Williams said.
 
“He was training after three or four weeks and walking around the oval two weeks after having the surgery. It was just amazing and it seemed like nothing more than a hamstring or an ankle injury that kept him away from the group. He delivered and he was terrific tonight.”
 
Leading goalkicker Jason Davenport was a late withdrawal before the game, but Williams was confident that he, Daniel Motlop (hamstring) and Cameron Hitchcock (back) would be available for selection next week.