Richmond assistant coach Mark Williams diagnosed with cancer Michael Gleeson
The Age
November 24, 2014Richmond senior development coach and former Port Adelaide premiership coach Mark Williams has been diagnosed with cancer.
Williams, the former Collingwood captain and Brisbane Bears player has lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. The 56-year-old coach will have further tests to determine if it is Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Williams noticed a lump in his neck last week and after consulting the Richmond doctor had tests which confirmed the diagnosis.
Richmond football manager Dan Richardson said Williams felt fine and wanted to continue to work and the club would support him through the illness.
"He was only diagnosed last week, so he has still got further tests to undergo in the next week or two to get a bit more information on it," Richardson said.
"He is feeling fine. He noticed a lump in his lymph in his neck, which is how it came about being diagnosed, so at the moment he wants to keep working and work around the testing and things that are to come."
A club spokesman said further tests would be needed to determine what form of lymphoma it was – Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin – but whether that was to be made public would be a matter for Williams.
One of the league's more flamboyant and colourful coaches, Williams coached Port Adelaide from 1999 to 2010. He led Port to their inaugural flag in 2004 and famously grabbed at his tie and held it up to goad those who had accused the team of choking when they failed after finishing top four the two previous years.
He then provocatively declared the club's major sponsor was "wrong" in his acceptance speech on the day for questioning whether Williams was the man to lead the club to a flag. The Power under Williams also played in the 2007 grand final loss to Geelong.
Williams played 135 games for Collingwood from 1981 to '86, was captain from 1983 to '86, won the Copeland Trophy in 1981 and '85 and was an All-Australian in 1980. He moved to the Brisbane Bears for three seasons and 66 games in 1987 and '88.
He coached at GWS for two seasons before moving to Richmond to work with Damien Hardwick.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/richmond-assistant-coach-mark-williams-diagnosed-with-cancer-20141123-11savf.html