Burgoyne, who was sent back to the SANFL a month ago after turning up to a recovery session in an unfit manner, has struggled since suffering a hamstring injury earlier this season.
The premiership star continued to make uncharacteristic ball handling errors on Friday night and Williams said the out-of-contract 30-year-old’s future was still up in the air.
“The disappointing disposals from Peter are something we haven’t seen from Peter over the years, so you’d have to say that [it’s a confidence thing],” Williams said.
“I think he was out of the AFL game for six weeks earlier in the year with his hamstring problem and he really hasn’t come back with the same surety that he’s had in the past.”
Williams said Burgoyne, despite some sub-par performances, would remain in the Port Adelaide line up for the remaining two games.
“Peter is out of contract. He’s fully aware that we want to see something from him before the end of the year and him playing well in the SANFL isn’t going to prove anything to us,” he said.
“There’s probably no one out there on the field that can do the things Peter can do. We’d rather spend time with a player like that rather than one that might never be capable of reaching those heights. That’s our justification of it.
“If we can get Peter Burgoyne up and running before the end of the year, it will be great for Port Adelaide next year.
“We’re just trying to learn that he’s willing, able and wanting to play football for Port Adelaide.
“We’ve put it on him that we want to see something. His training has really picked up over the last couple of weeks and tonight was better than it has been and that’s a fact.
“He made some massive blunders that caused goals to be kicked against us, but we can see his effort. We watch his GPS, we see his running and we hear what he says at the breaks and before the game.
“He’s into the game and he wants to be here next year- I know that for a fact.”
