PORT ADELAIDE coach Mark Williams believes Fremantle were “more into it” and “more switched” on than his team in Sunday afternoon’s topsy-turvy affair at AAMI Stadium.

Fremantle, with the aid of a breeze, bolted to a 36-point lead at quarter time after keeping the Power goalless in an opening term for the first time this season.

Port Adelaide responded in the second term and stole the lead in the third, but couldn’t muster a sufficient surge to thwart the determined visitors.

It had been well publicised that some members of the Power line up were fighting for their footballing lives and Williams said Sunday afternoon’s game did little to convince him those players deserved a spot on the list next year.

“Congratulations to Harvs [Mark Harvey] and to Fremantle, obviously, they wanted that win more than us; I’m not sure why,” Williams said.

 “I certainly thought they came to play a lot more than us and they were more into it and switched on, but then again, they did have the wind [in the first quarter].

“I thought we gave our players an opportunity to show something, so that they could stamp their name and position on the team for next year, but certainly there are a lot of undecided positions following today’s result.

“The players that stand up and really stand out, you can put a big tick next to. Some of the others that haven’t performed [today], it doesn’t necessarily mean that will be the case all the time.

“But it does say to me that those players out of contract at other clubs; we’d be really keen to talk to them pretty soon.”

The Power, who labelled last week’s Showdown with Adelaide their ‘grand final’, were unable to muster the same endeavour and intensity that got them over the line against their cross-town rivals.

Fremantle match winner Matthew Pavlich was a late withdrawal before the game, but Williams dismissed speculation his team had taken the opposition lightly on the back of Pavlich’s absence.

“I’m not exactly sure why [we weren’t as good as last week]. Since 2000, we’ve played the Showdown and then won 10 out of 15 games the following week,” Williams said.

“Strategically, we put Fabian Deluca into the ruck and without Chad Cornes, Broges [Dean Brogan] and those sorts of people around the ball and their energy and enthusiasm, maybe that contributed [to the flat start].

“I certainly don’t walk away from that and I didn’t think we were as good as we were last week. The specifics, like the hardball-gets and tackles would say we weren’t as good.

“There wasn’t any discussion about it [Pavlich being out] during the game or in the rooms. The build up before the game was fine. You could hear the noise and the enthusiasm and it was similar to last week.”