"You'd always dream about it; a hanger in the goal square, kick it long like in the schoolyard," Williams said this week.
As a boy in southern Western Australia, Williams would take on the persona of the 1990s 'king' of the big game, Wayne Carey, as he traded football tricks with his mates.
And those grand final fantasies remained a constant for Williams despite being thousands of kilometres from the MCG.
"You'd think about it every day," Williams said.
"Everyone in Australia sits back and waits for this day in September.
"As a kid, you always grow up thinking about the grand final, and now it is here."
Williams has good reason to be excited, given his red-hot preliminary final form, where he kicked five goals against St Kilda.
The 25-year-old also has an impressive grand final record to fall back on – four wins from four attempts. Three of those were junior flags, with the other coming for the Box Hill Hawks in the VFL in 2001.
"[Four out of four] is a good strike rate, hopefully [it will be] five," he said.
Against the Cats at the MCG in round 17, Williams slotted the goal that put the Hawks ahead in the last term.
While Geelong came back that night and snatched victory, Williams, like most at Hawthorn, took away plenty of self-belief from the narrow loss.
"As long as everyone does their bit in the team, we'll be a good side. Just hopefully we come to play, and we should be okay," Williams said.
No matter the result, Williams says he won't be bringing out his 'shotgun' salute after booting goals in the grand final.
"I have probably gone away from that a little bit; it is probably more about the team now and acknowledging the bloke who set the goal up."
