PTV: Wanganeen's Career Highlights
The Power made a promising start to the season, winning five of their first seven games, but have since dropped to 13th place on the AFL ladder on the back of a club record seven-game losing streak.
Williams is only seven months into his two-year contract, but pressure is mounting on him to walk away from the club that he has served for the last 14 years.
Wanganeen played under two long-serving coaches in Williams and Essendon legend Kevin Sheedy and said he was confident Williams still had the ability to guide Port Adelaide out of its current form slump.
“I feel for Choc,” Wanganeen said on Tuesday.
“I’m a big supporter of Choco and he’s been immense support for me over my career.
“From what I know, how he tries to inspire the guys is second to none. Every player will go through stages where they might hear the same old thing from their coach, but at the end of the day it’s about the players getting out there, performing and taking that onboard themselves.
“It’s a tough spot at the moment that he’s in and my support is behind him. It’s just a matter of the players getting out there, trying to get a bit of passion back and playing with excitement and taking them on.”
Wanganeen will do a lap of honour before the Power’s clash with Collingwood at AAMI Stadium on Friday night to celebrate his recent induction into the AFL’s Hall of Fame.
At this stage the Brownlow medallist and dual premiership player hasn’t been approached to give a pre-game address, but said he would visit the change rooms to offer his support to the team.
“As a former player, you still feel the hurt that the boys are feeling. It’s been a rough trot and every club goes through these bad cycles, so hopefully the boys can turn it around very quickly,” he said.
“I’ll pop down and say g’day to a few of the boys. There are still quite a few of the lads there that I played with over my career and [I know] some of the new guys as well.”
Port Adelaide will be without veteran Chad Cornes on Friday night after the dual All-Australian accepted a one-match ban for making forceful contact from front on against Fremantle’s Ryan Crowley.
Injured trio Robbie Gray (hamstring), Hamish Hartlett (quad) and Jacob Surjan (knee) have also been ruled out for another week, but midfielder Travis Boak (groin) will be available for selection.
One player to take advantage of the Power’s high injury toll is young onballer Mitch Banner.
Banner played the opening three games of the season before being sent back to the SANFL.
The 20-year-old struggled for form and was demoted to the Woodville-West Torrens reserves, but that didn’t prevent the Power from recalling him for the round 13 clash with North Melbourne.
The tough ball magnet repaid the club’s faith and was unlucky not to receive a NAB Rising Star nomination last weekend after picking up 23 possessions and kicking a goal in the game against Fremantle.
Banner said it was a day of mixed emotions at Subiaco Oval on Saturday.
“It was good for me on the weekend to play a great game and to lift my confidence, but in saying that, we’ve lost seven games in a row,” Banner said.
“We’re trying to get that one win back and lift the confidence of the group because that’s the thing that is down at the moment. We need to play the footy that we were playing at the start of the year.”
