PORT Adelaide coach Mark Williams likes to combine his two areas of expertise - football coaching and school teaching - in his methods and the lines are often blurry at pre-season training.

It’s Wednesday. The players arrive, bags on backs, for a prompt 8am start and when the bell (or whistle in this case) sounds, Alberton Oval is transformed into one, big, outdoor classroom.

The morning starts with a jog and an adaptation of the traditional schoolyard game, Brandy, where players take turns dodging and tagging each other with tennis balls.

Attendance is pleasing. Every member of the Power squad takes part, except for Dean Brogan, who is excused with football’s version of a sick note from the club doctor.

Brogan, nursing several sore spots, is restricted to walking laps of the ground, but he’s not immune from a report card. He tells a trainer he rates his fitness at 6/10 today.

The drills in the centre of the oval begin to heat up in accordance with the soaring temperature, which will hit 32 degrees Celsius by the end of the session.

Warren Tredrea, despite having relinquished the captaincy, can still be heard in full-voice as the players attempt to nail pinpoint passes over, under and around, what look like, giant cardboard cut-out men staggered all over the ground.

Williams acts as headmaster, but instead of addressing untucked shirts and chewing gum, he asks captaincy-candidate Dom Cassisi why he hasn’t picked up a ball yet and animatedly encourages ex-Richmond recruit Danny Meyer to kick through the footy.

A short time later, another whistle blows and the players divide into groups.

Meyer and lanky draftees Jackson Trengove and Jarrad Redden make a move for the boundary line and start lap number one of more than 15 for the session.

A handful of rookies and NSW Scholarship holders are ushered over to the stands where they take refuge from the sun in one of the shady back rows.

Williams informs the group the ‘theory’ component of training will take place now.

The players that remain on the ground run through different kick-out scenarios.

The youngsters in the stands have already seen these set plays on a whiteboard in the clubrooms, but the coaches are keen for them to get a 3D, birds-eye view.

And Williams says it’s no secret why this is lesson number-one at Alberton today.

“We were the 16th best team at scoring goals from kick-ins last season, so maybe we’re working on that,” he smiles, taking a brief time-out from training.

At this point, an impromptu parent-teacher meeting takes place. Williams observantly identifies the sibling of Power NSW Scholarship holder, Harrison Cumming, and politely engages the young boy, his mother and sister in conversation.

He is impressed by the teenager’s size and gives the family an open assessment of the AFL hopeful’s ability.

By now, the Alberton school day is more than two-hours old and the players again break into small groups to work on specific skills.

Steve Salopek, who is on the comeback from achilles tendonitis, pulls out at this stage and takes up his all-too familiar spot on the boundary line. The popular midfielder spends the last hour running laps.

He can feel discomfort in his foot, but he gets a gold star for resilience.

A group of first-year players, including Glenn ‘Cougar’ Dawson, Matthew Broadbent and rookies Daniel Stewart and Wade Thompson are also directed to the sidelines.

But their assignment is short, repeat sprints.

And it feels like hard work too, until they hear the instructions given to their more senior counterparts.

With nearly three hours training behind them, the players are summoned to one end of the ground by fitness coach Cameron Falloon.

The members of the 15-strong group line up alongside one another and, when the whistle blows, they take off towards the goalposts at the other end of the ground.

They are afforded a brief rest before repeating the same effort.

Another two groups of players move just as swiftly around the boundary line.

Head of the fitness class Kane Cornes offers encouragement to his teammates and, after 20 minutes of gut busting running, the whistle halts the players once again.

This time, the whistle signals the end of the session. But with pool and weights sessions to come, home time at the Power football school is still a long way away.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.