But given his team's recent slump in form and confidence, Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams was more than happy to discuss his positive ledger against Essendon and their coach Kevin Sheedy ahead of Sunday's twilight fixture at AAMI Stadium.
The Power have been victorious in six of the previous eight meetings between the sides, and knocked out the Bombers in both the 2002 and 2003 finals series.
Sheedy has said many of those wins took place when a full strength Port has overwhelmed a patchwork Essendon, but Williams still placed plenty of emphasis on their history, rather than the fact Port have lost their last four matches while the Bombers have won their last three in dramatic style.
"It's certainly not a negative for us, it's a positive. The fact is they won the last couple of games by a point, I think they've won four games by less than 10 points, so they've ground out games really well, Williams said.
"But I was there last week and they probably should've been 10 goals down against West Coast.
"We've probably got five or six players he hasn't seen. If you look at our forward line, you'd probably think that, so every year is a different year but he's aware of the record."
Port Adelaide's players will also be acutely aware of the record of their captain Warren Tredrea when they take the field.
Despite a recent struggle in his comeback from knee injuries, Tredrea has been the Power's greatest player over their first 11 seasons, and Williams this week claimed that 80 per cent of the club's victories over that period had stemmed largely from their key forward's efforts.
The squad watched extensive highlights of Tredrea's career on Friday afternoon, enhancing their motivation for Sunday evening.
"It's up to the players to respect what he's done for us and the club and get out there and play the best they can and that's it," Williams said.
"We'll show a nice little clip of what he's done - and that'll be one of the very best you can put together from any club - but on the day everyone just cares about playing their best and Warren will be very happy with that I'm sure."
Needing particular inspiration will be the Port defensive line, which, save for ageing fullback Darryl Wakelin, is short of experience as well as confidence as they prepare to match wits with Bombers spearheads Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas.
"If you look at our defence it hasn't been very experienced, with Toby (Thurstans) down there and Michael Pettigrew and Jacob Surjan," Williams said.
"Wakes is the only bona fide defender that's been there the whole time so we're a developing side in that area. You put that together with the forward line you get a feeling of 'gee they have lost a lot of people in those areas'.
