Little wonder that Essendon are so keen on Mark Williams to replace Sheedy. All week Choco has been getting out on the front foot, being innovative and thinking outside the square in brilliant fashion in order to get his team over the line in this weeks top of the table clash at the Cattery.
Make no mistake this is a huge match for the Power. For the Cats, this game is little more than finals preparation, almost a dead rubber with top spot locked in. If the Power can succeed where 15 others have failed in the last four months this young team will be bristling with confidence and self-belief and most likely the prized second spot on the ladder. The consequences for the suddenly Kerr-less West Coast of a Port victory are dire.
Williams went into Sheedy mode straight after the remarkable ‘theft’ of the Hawthorn game down in Tassie. First he pointed out that he knows what is like to be top all year and not deliver when it counts, inferring that Geelong may be about to do the same thing. Then he aimed a well placed jab at Cameron Mooney and hinted that maybe the volcano was about to blow.
Now it is reported that the Power have been scouting the Cats for a month and that he has contacted Dean Laidley for advice about how to beat the Cats, seeing as he was the last coach to successfully perform what has become an increasingly difficult task. Port has proven in its short AFL history that it is a professionally run club and the rapid rebuild has left several more established organisations blinking in wonderment and Mark Williams is a key behind much of what is good about Port Adelaide.
Mark Thompson for his part, has made all the right noises this week and has kept his focus on what his boys are doing and Geelong’s method is almost an ‘us against them’ which ironically, has served Port Adelaide so well in the past. While talk of the premiership being ‘in the bag’ is a tad premature as well as being inaccurate – it would be just as inaccurate to suggest that the Cats will have it all their own way against Port at home this weekend. If Port Adelaide don’t come away from Cat Park with the points, it won’t be down to a lack of preparation.
