Fatigue all in the mind, says Williams
Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams played pop psychologist while explaining why several AFL clubs, including his own, seem in sore need of the break afforded by the 150th anniversary Dream Team match.
As he forges a testing path between coaching the Power back into finals contention and leading the Dream Team for the showpiece match against Victoria on May 10, Williams will need to decide which of his players are fit to play after Sunday's twilight fixture against Essendon.
But he reckoned the soreness and fatigue evident among numerous clubs would cease to be there if there was no break to look forward to.
"What happens is people know there's a break so they might wind down themselves a little as far as they look forward to that time, so it might actually add to their feeling they need a break," Williams said.
"Six or seven games in for every side, you can see at West Coast, Brisbane and Adelaide, all the teams are just getting their players through and looking forward to that break next week."
With Chad Cornes to miss a month of football as he recovers from a broken finger, Williams is also watching over the fitness of Power players like Shaun Burgoyne, David Rodan and Kane Cornes.
But he insisted he would not be pulling any sly moves regarding his own Dream Team selections.
"No, if our players are up and ready and wanting to play I'll be playing them and everything points to probably five or six outside those who have been selected who want to play as well," he said.
"So there's a real excitement about it and it's really difficult to decide which is the best way to go.
"Probably with some of our players it's almost if I put more in, it looks like I'm being too biased, and it's very difficult to satisfy anyone."
Dean Brogan, Domenic Cassisi and Brendon Lade are among Port players not in the initial Dream Team squad of 40 who Williams must consider.
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