AS PORT ADELAIDE prepares for next week’s Preliminary Final, the club’s inaugural AFL Premiership coach Mark Williams has revealed some of the interesting ways he would try to motivate his team including an unplanned team talk by movie star Hugh Jackman.
Williams appeared on Channel 7’s The Front Bar program on Thursday night and looked back fondly on his time at the club, including that drought-breaking flag in 2004.
Going into the Grand Final against a Brisbane outfit which had won the previous three premierships, Port had been slugged chokers after finishing top in previous years but failing to even make it to the season decider.
“We’d had a bit of torment over the years,” Williams said.
“We’d got to the top of the ladder and not won the flag and we were up against a team that was going for four in a row so we wanted to be prepared.
“All credit to the players, we’d brought people into our group to be ready for that and that was Josh Carr, Damien Hardwick and certainly Byron Pickett and they added to our group without a doubt, great recruiting.
“Dimma (Hardwick) is a really tough guy and he leads the way and he led on that day. We just didn’t want to be intimidated.”
Williams is renowned as an educator and motivator of players, often taking his team talks out onto the wing to be in front of supporters to help inspire the side.
On one occasion he involved movie star Hugh Jackman, who happened to be in Adelaide and a guest in the Port Adelaide rooms during a Showdown.
“I would use anything that I thought “ooh, that’s a good idea” (to motivate players),” Williams explained.
“I’d be talking and saying “that guy over there” - without bringing him into the group – “he gets to perform in front of people, they pay good money, and on that day, I don’t care if he’s got a cold, I don’t care if something’s happening with one of his kids, he still has to perform and that’s exactly what we have to do today.
“We get in at half time and we were losing so I go grab him, and asked him to say a few words, I don’t know what was said, but we got up.
“If you can find something that sparks the imagination and it works for the group, you do it.”
Williams is a member of the Port Adelaide Hall of Fame in recognition of both his playing and coaching exploits.
He revealed how much the club meant to him and his family – including his late father Fos.
“It’s been a huge part of our lives, Dad’s a nine-time premiership coach,” Williams said.
“As a family, I think we’ve won 21 premierships between us out of the 37, which is really significant.
“I was lucky to be part of the 70s, 80s and 90s.
“We won flags in all of those years and I really did enjoy it. My younger brother Steve played there and my twin brother Anthony as well so we had fantastic times there.
“Stephen went on to coach Port Adelaide after we went into the AFL.”
Williams revealed his pride at the impact his father has had on Port Adelaide and the game as a whole.
“Dad went to war at 17 and didn’t come back and start playing football in the SANFL til he was 24 and played til he was 36,” he said.
“He played in all those winning premierships – he was captain/coach of South Australia as well.
“There’s a Fos Williams Medal in South Australia and I’m as proud as anything to be his son.
“You go to the Adelaide Oval and one of the stands is named after him.
“All of those things put him in the right spot to where he should be in footy.”
