Power coach Mark Williams believed it was mission accomplished when his team took on and beat Richmond at AAMI Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Power coaching staff even got the opportunity to do some experimenting in the last quarter to help prepare it for its upcoming clash against Sydney. Here’s what the coach had to says in his post-match media conference.

To think that we won by 40 points, at the start of the game we were quite anxious about the game, so it’s a great result for us. Our club is about building and improving and educating so the last quarter – I know they kicked five goals and they’d be pleased to run out the game and play competitive footy in the last part – we moved some players around, we played Krakouer in the centre square, Pettigrew went forward and we took some players off. We tried to look forward to the end of the year, plus the fact of developing our list and giving other people opportunities. Although that quarter wasn’t particularly perfect for us, hopefully that education is good for them in the future.

Even reading the paper today people were questioning the decision to play Kane Cornes. I thought that after one quarter you worked out he was okay and he had a wonderful game. Chad was again good, he’s been brilliant for a month I would suspect and I thought Lade and Damon White probably set up the game, Thurstans played pretty good footy. Peter (Burgoyne) kept going at it, and he looked really dangerous.

Overall, our players were really pleased and thrilled to help David Rodan get that first win over his old team, which is always an issue when you’ve played at another club, that you’re a little anxious about playing them. I thought he played really well and kicked some goals which is good for us. He’d be very pleased to be at our club right now, I’m sure.

Did Richmond come out as hard as you thought they would early?

I think there was a bit of fight there. Without doubt, it was kind of close halfway through the first quarter and they were trying to show something. You’d have to say Terry and his group got them up ready to play. They weren’t dejected or despondent from last week, which is a great sign from a footy club that you can turn things around pretty quickly.

Why do you think you didn’t get centre clearances early?

I think Patterson played okay. We were probably a little bit of, I think the classic saying would be all duck and no dinner. We were probably rating ourselves a little more highly than what actually occurred. Everyone was running forward, trying to read the first one and then everyone decided that we might get that first possession, so they’d be second to get the next one and we’d be out of the centre square. And a fumble or a bumble and its hit someone’s foot or something and it bounced back and they (Richmond players) were all behind us. We addressed that. We were disappointed with it, but these things happen. We were probably getting ahead of ourselves.

Terry Wallace was asked a few moments ago whether you were a top four side. He said that your best 4 or 5 players are equal of any other team in the competition in terms of top 4 or 5 players at a club. Do you agree?

I think he’s got probably 4 or 5 players exactly the same. Every team has. It’s based on the draft, they’ve picked up some wonderful players in the draft over time. In comparison, yes, we have some very good players. But are we a top four side? Who knows. Only the end of the year will say that. We’re working towards being one of those sides. We finished twelfth last year. We’re putting in place some good steps along the way to ensure we have another crack at wining the premiership, that’s what we’re about. So, whatever’s happening at the moment is fine and we're enjoying the moment, but we've certainly got longer term goals ahead to build our side and build the players so they not only get up there but actually succeed when they do.

How did you rate your transition from defence?

We scored some goals from there. We went inside-50 okay. I think they might have had about 20 possessions to inside-50, but played a very slow chipping game, they kept possession of the ball, so there was some frustration there. But to the boys credit they chased hard and turned over the ball quite a few times. Again, we didn’t play exactly as we’d like to. We’re moving ahead along the way and we will continue to look forward to that challenge to get better at it.

Did you use that last quarter for some of the stuff you might get against Sydney?

There was certainly some of that involved in it. It was very much an educational last quarter for us. We probably learned more than what the score suggests.

Thurstans in defence – is that more convincing for you?

It’s been convincing all year for me, he’s been really good. Obviously he did a pretty difficult job for a few weeks when Broags was out (in defence and rucking with Lade) but he’s done very well for us and we look forward to his career blossoming because it’s been a bit stop-start over the first seven or so years.

How do you keep the players from getting ahead of themselves from here on?

Every game just brings a new challenge. Sydney in Sydney is as hard as any and we look forward to that. I know it’s only one year out of the last six that we haven’t made the finals but it seems a long time in the wilderness. We appreciate being near the top, it’s a lot nicer environment to be in. I think I’ve said it before, but the smell of the club is a nice smell to come to when you’re in a winning environment. It’s great for the young players. I can’t wait to get to watch some SANFL games tomorrow and see some of these young blokes have a crack at it. Westhoff I think kicked 3.2 and Symes played okay, Boak’s playing tomorrow, and Robbie Gray played great last week. We want to see them shine, we’re really looking forward to their development coming through. We’re looking forward to them stringing a few together and really putting some pressure to try and get in the side. I would suspect that Salopek would be a hundred percent next week and Chaplin will play, so we will have some serious selection concerns next week. Besides the tough phone call on Thursday, the rest of it is all good for the club.

Is there a reason why you’ve only had three holding the ball decisions against you in seven rounds?

I have no idea whether that’s true or false, but if it is, I’m not sure how many we’ve had for us. I have no idea how many holding the balls they’re playing these days in a game. I would say some things that might contribute to it is that the umpires let the ball run a long time so you have the opportunity to get it out on both sides, our players are strong so they can get through tackles, players might lift their hands, there’s three or four things that might contribute to it. I really do have no idea.

You have a lot of options for your forward structure. Are you happy with the forward structure?

I was pretty annoyed about our goalkicking actually. We hit the post too many times when we needed to break the game apart, and I think we even hit it twice in the last quarter. We are having shots on goal so that’s great. Certainly we’ve got options in the forward line and we’re looking forward to continually developing that. With Lade in the forward line this week that was a different look. Jason Cripps has done a wonderful job. We’ve still got Tony McGuiness at the club to pass on some of his knowledge that he gathered over the last couple of years. Phil Walsh is watching and analysing what the best clubs are doing in the forward line so we’re getting a good mix of information and the players are really eager to learn. I still think Tredrea’s got 50 percent more to come and we really look forward to that because people forget that he is a dominant AFL forward, so we’d look to see him blossom in the second half of the season.

Is it just coincidence, or is there a correlation with two best starts of the season coming after missing finals?

I haven’t actually thought about that. If it means that we have to get a kick in the pants to play well. It’s probably more circumstantial than anything. It’s a nice stat to have. If that means we push on to make the finals we’ll be happy. Certainly we’re in a position now to look towards that, but there’s still two thirds of the season to go and a lot of things can happen in that time. We certainly won’t be looking for anything more than to try and develop a side that wins the premiership, not just to make the eight, so we’ll make some decision that might look a little kooky at the time. The Port supporters out there will be happy with where we are, but I know they all want us to win premierships, so we’ll make some long-term decisions to make sure that we have a good chance to do that soon.

You said every club has top 4 or 5 players of similar quality, in saying that, how’s the depth of your club?

We’re probably average, that’s what I think. It’s about delivering on the day, it’s about how the team works, it’s about how they believe in each other and how much work they want to put in. It’s a very even competition and on any given day anyone can beat anyone.

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