Port coach on the hunt for AFL talent - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Port coach on the hunt for AFL talent

By Daniel Brettig 04/08/2008 06:17:45 PM Comments (0)

Player phone numbers collected during his stint with the AFL Dream Team will be given the once-over by Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams as the Power ramp up their list clean-out efforts.

Williams said he had already made up his mind about the futures of numerous players he does not want at Alberton next year, and that the phone traffic between he, managers and players was likely to increase.

"I can guarantee that individual players (from other clubs) ring me up and that's a nice thing," he said.

"They are talking about their futures and what they see in their future at Port Adelaide.

"It's a nice feeling and our recruiting people, as well as being certain on the lower draft picks, are also concentrating on who might come through as an uncontracted player.

"We've got lots of flexibility in the salary cap and we look forward to the best player available coming here and making an impact straight away."

The Dream Team experience gave Williams a chance to get inside the heads of a wide variety of players, while also allowing him to talk on player attributes with coaches from opposition clubs.

He said he returned home from the time in Melbourne brandishing a long list of phone numbers.

"I did get their numbers and they got mine," Williams said.

"That's been really worthwhile, both the players and also from the other coaches, you get to hear quite a bit about other players at their club as well so that was a really good thing for our club."

All the talk about what is on offer beyond the Power's current stocks does not bode well for numerous fringe players, and Williams said as many as 10 could be on their way out at year's end.

"Right at the start of the year I knew how many players were out of contract and how many were borderline," he said.

"(The list changes) will be between the three that you have to make and 10 that you can pick and choose from, which is a quarter of the list, if you like."

Port looked on course to defeat St Kilda on Sunday before fading to a narrow defeat, allowing them to slip behind Fremantle and so inherit the right to pick three at the end of season draft.

Williams kept clear of talk about tanking, but could not hide his glee at the thought of a lofty pick.

"We'd like to have won but the result, we can't get above Essendon so the facts are us and Fremantle and West Coast are pretty similar," Williams said.

"(Lance) Buddy Franklin, what number (draft pick) was he? Not a bad player is he."

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