PORT Adelaide has closed ranks ahead of Monday midday board meeting, which will ultimately decide the fate of long-serving coach Mark Williams.
The club is likely to make a comment on the outcome of the meeting later this afternoon after it was rescheduled from Monday night.
Power vice-captain Kane Cornes fronted the media on Monday morning in the wake of Sunday’s 34-point loss to Geelong, but was reluctant to answer questions on the topic.
“It’s nice for you guys [in the media] to talk about it [the senior coaching position], but it’s been done to death and we all know where the situation’s at. We’ll just wait and see how it pans out,” Cornes said.
“I’m not going to bother speaking about it today…there’s no point. It will be settled soon enough.”
Cornes was happier to spruik the club’s finals chances going into the last nine rounds of the season.
Port Adelaide has dropped four of its past five games and faces a tough battle against the fifth-placed Brisbane Lions at AAMI Stadium on Saturday.
Cornes was hopeful the Power’s last quarter performance against Geelong—in which they outscored the Cats six goals to two—could provide a springboard for the latter half of the year.
“I don’t think it’s acceptable to lose, but the effort the boys showed on Sunday was pretty good apart from the first quarter. The first quarter was pretty ordinary and Geelong touched us up a little bit,” Cornes said.
“At three-quarter time we spoke about building our season with a good last quarter performance going into next week.
“There’s a big opportunity for us to finish off the season well and make finals.”
The in-form Lions have corrected a slow start to the season, winning six of their past eight games.
The Power hold a narrow 3-2 advantage in recent games played between the two sides and Cornes was confident the Power could notch up another win in front of its home crowd.
“It’s a huge game this week, but it’s a pretty good draw for us in the second half of the year, and we knew that coming into the season.
“We knew on the weekend it would be tough to get that win, but after that we feel we’re a great opportunity to win six of our last nine and sneak into the finals.”
Unlucky forward Robbie Gray was the only casualty to emerge from the trip to Skilled Stadium.
Gray appeared to injure a knee in a marking contest, but is actually nursing a sore groin. He will be given until later in the week to prove his fitness.
Midfielder Matt Thomas (knee) trained with injured teammates Chad Cornes, Travis Boak and Hamish Hartlett on Monday and could be available for selection this week.
