PORT ADELAIDE coach Mark Williams believes his side will see the immediate benefits of the decision to blood young players in recent weeks when it takes to the field in 2009.

Williams and his coaching staff committed to auditioning players after pulling out of the finals race in round 14 and, on Saturday, 18-year-old Marlon Motlop joined the list of debutants.

The Power have unveiled five new players in the past four weeks, six in all this season, and Williams maintained his 13th-placed side was on the up after it easily accounted for Melbourne on Saturday afternoon.

"We haven't lost the focus, the desire, the confidence or even the courage, if you like, to pick the side we said we were going to pick and to play with a little bit of experimentation," Williams said.

"I looked at the opposition and we had a less-experienced group than we did and I think the age group was very similar, so a little bit of what we saw today is something we’ll be able to progress with very quickly into next year.

"We’ve certainly got much more confidence in picking people like Marlon and Matthew Westhoff, who would never have had the opportunity if we’d stuck with the tried and true, or the stronger bodies and the more experience.

"That courage will be paid back ten-fold next year and we look forward to the blossoming."

The Power took a similar experimental approach late in 2006 and the result was a grand final berth the following year.

Since losing to Geelong in that game, Port Adelaide has won just six matches but, despite its worst season on record, Williams said the Power were better placed than they were in 2006.

"We’ve made some decisions through this period now, but that doesn’t mean to say we’ll get the same result [a grand final] as we did from 2006 [to] 2007," Williams said.

"I think the senior players and the leadership group have had their pride pricked. Going into the end of 2006, we won some games and everyone was feeling pretty good about themselves.

"We’re not feeling pretty good about ourselves now. Everyone knows there is a hell of a lot of work to be done, but they also know there’s so much room for improvement, so we look forward to that.

"We’ll have a really long, tough and hard pre-season and we hope to be well prepared going into 2009."