Power coach Mark Williams truly enjoyed the win against Fremantle, believing it was one of the club’s best. For those that saw him, he was pretty emotional straight after the game. But pretty soon his attention turned to next week’s game. Here’s what he said to the media in his post-match media conference 30 minutes after the final siren at Subiaco.

We’re really happy to have won today, it was a great win for us. To go through all the practice games and the NAB Cup and get the opportunity to fly over, we came over a day earlier than normal. We put a lot of time and effort into this game, but in the end it’s worth four points. It’s a great effort from us to come back from where we were and I thought our fitness was outstanding, the ability to run out the game on such a big ground, with Motlop off early, that was outstanding the amount of effort and workload that different people had to take up because he was injured.

So, it was noted and you have to guts it out and I thought right until the end I thought both teams worked really hard because it was a draining day – I’ve always thought it was a bit strange to play at that time of the day in Perth this time of the year but the AFL schedule it that way so we play it.

It was tough but we kept at it and I’m really proud of them (the players). I thought Dean Brogan was outstanding, without any doubt he was outstanding. I thought that Rodan and Ebert in the second half really stepped up, Motlop and White early, their goal kicking was outstanding. Obviously players around the ball had had to keep running, and that was really important for us.

We’ll get back on the plane and look forward to next week. I’m sure Fremantle are going to be a really good side this year, so it’s going to be a real bonus for us, not too many sides are going to win over here.

Mark, how important was it for you in the third quarter to start getting your hands on the footy inside the centre square?

Well, even at the start of the third quarter they (Fremantle) kicked the first two goals, but we actually got the ball, I think it was a smother or a fumble or some sort of thing, but we were doing very well. Dean Bailey and Matty Primus have worked with those guys (midfield / ruck) for a long long time now, and they’re getting a good return, following on from last year, where we were very good.

How does that rate as far as wins for your club?

It’s right up there. It’s great to have some people from Adelaide come over and it’s great for the people in Perth that barrack for us. You know they will be walking down the streets pretty proud for a fair time. I think they’ll get a fair bit of mileage out of that game, because probably the last couple of years we haven’t been good in Perth, but prior to that we won a lot of games. But it (Subiaco) certainly suits our style – we’re a fast team, we can run. And it was good for our young players – I thought Rodan made a real impact in the second half, Krakouer did some nice things and even Cockshell kicked a goal. Everyone has a debut and this is one they certainly won’t forget.

Mark, your ability to dominate in the third quarter was outstanding but your ability to hang on mentally and physically in the last quarter must have been pleasing?

The leaders in the team are really standing up and taking over a dominant role. They get listened to, they get followed, they get admired by the group, so that’s outstanding. Fremantle just keep rotating players everywhere and we certainly had to match them and selection took a hell of a long time to work out what would be the best mix, but in the end we probably look back and say we get it right.

It was great to play in front of a big crowd and we look forward to next week. I can’t imagine too many will come but our supporters will be pretty keen on coming, now. We’re playing North (Kangaroos) who don’t have great drawing power, and it’s on Eastern Sunday, with Easter eggs and all that stuff, but I’m sure we’ve given them a reason to come and if we can push up to 30,000 that would be fantastic for us.

When you talk about getting selection right, is that more run as opposed to more marking power?

It’s run, marking power, changeability in the backline – Fremantle swap a lot of their forwards and swap a lot of their backs, they were doing everything, so it’s a difficult team to work against. But credit to the guys in the coaching box – it was the first time Adam Kingsley and Jason Cripps have been in there with the rest of us – and it was great for them. And it was well scouted by our forward scouts; I thought they did a wonderful job.

What changed in the centre clearances in the third quarter, you just got complete control of them?

Scores from centre clearances were I think 4 goals 4, to 6 goals at half time, so we actually had more shots. We probably didn’t make the most out of our opportunities. WE got a little bit cleaner. The good thing for us is we kept trying to win the game, not trying to mitigate your losses if you like, so we kept at it, we kept believing what we were trying to do, and the players believed in what we’ve been working on for a long time. We started right back when we played over in London, to try and get some stuff going and it’s been good so far.

What does this mean for the rest of the season, to come back from 34 points at Subiaco Oval?

It is huge, but as I said, it is only one game. We get realistic with it. For a lot of us that have been around we’ll enjoy the five minutes, and suck in the atmosphere and really enjoy walking off the ground with our heads held high, but right now the players are onto next week. As much as you want to write us up, we’ll know that we’re playing against a side next week that beats us (almost) every time we play.

Will Warren Tredrea play next week?

He’s some chance. I think Peter Burgoyne will play, Josh Mahoney should be available. Obviously Fremantle had a few out, but we had some really important players to us out as well. Warren’s coming along quite nicely, training really well, so we’ll see.