Mark Williams opens up on Richmond, Damien Hardwick, beating cancer and match-makingJay Clark,
Herald Sun
November 19, 2017MARK Williams has always felt drawn to the players facing the biggest hurdles.
Players, he says, who have been marginalised in some way, or those who have perhaps made some mistakes, or even been written off.
Think Danyle Pearce, the rookie turned Rising Star winner, or basketballer Dean Brogan from his time at Port Adelaide, and more recently Dan Butler or Jacob Townsend at Richmond.
Reflecting back on his four decades in football, including almost 20 years of AFL coaching, Williams says it’s been helping shape these “rough diamonds” which has brought him the most joy.
He still has the coaching bug, and would love to re-enter club land if an opportunity bobbed up, but he speaks with enormous pride about his time in the game.
“Jake Stringer, for example, I just think ‘wow’, what an opportunity to help a young man,” Williams said.
“I know people make mistakes and if you see the good in people and they believe you see the good in them, it is amazing how they can change.
“It (the path forward) is not often easy, it might not be straightforward and you might not find the answers in a book, because I think you have to live and experience these things sometimes.
“But I have got as much enjoyment out of finding a rookie, or getting someone like Josh Mahoney who was discarded by three clubs and comes to us (at Port) and wins a flag.
“No one wanted Danyle Pearce even though he was rated in three areas (at the draft camp) the best ever and no one wanted him. He has gone on to play 250 games.
“Dean Brogan was a basketballer. He won a flag, too. How about that? I just love that.”
Williams, 59, has always been one of the game’s most colourful and energetic characters.
A former PE teacher, Williams was a thinker, an innovator, a teacher and a protector. Mostly, he’s a believer.
At a time when Port Adelaide ran on the smell of an oily flag, he took them from the bottom in 2000 to three straight minor premierships, and crucially, the 2004 flag.
He helped start-up Brisbane (instead of accepting an offer from Carlton), was in-line to take over from Kevin Sheedy at Greater Western Sydney and then spent four years overseeing the development program at Richmond up until the end of last year.
The former Collingwood captain and two-time best-and-fairest winner also beat cancer in that time.
One of the most powerful images of the 2015 season was Williams being swarmed by Richmond players out in the middle of Punt Rd oval after announcing he had been given the all-clear.
“It certainly puts things into perspective, and thankfully my health is perfect now,” he said.
“I have to take one tablet a day. I had a type of blood cancer (lymphoma) and radiation for that for a long time and they thought I had a thyroid cancer as well, so they put these needles in your throat.
“Three doctors said there was a 70 per cent chance I had thyroid cancer and that I had to have it out.
“So they cut my neck from here to here, took some things out and there was nothing wrong with it. So I was very happy with that, very thankful.”
For the four-time SANFL premiership player, footy and life, is all about connection, and care. Making a football club a wider family. That’s always been his philosophy.
That’s how he grew close to Dustin Martin, helping the Brownlow Medallist mature and flourish on and off the field throughout their time together.
“When people talk culture at a football club, that’s what it is. It is all based around care,” he said.
“For your players and your staff. If they all care for each other and acknowledge everyone has a role and they are all important, you get a great team going.”
Williams was not reappointed at Richmond as part of sweeping change at the end of 2016, and watched on as the Tigers captured a stunning premiership.
Departures can be difficult for anyone, and to that extent Williams is no different from the rest of us, but he could not be happier for his Richmond friends.
“I loved watching them play, seeing them all step up and achieve something special together like that. It’s a credit to them and all the hard work they have done,” Williams said.
He remains close with players at all the clubs he has been involved in because of the bonds he has forged in the earliest stages of their development.
He was touched by a recent message from retiring West Coast ruckman Jon Giles.
“It was really nice. He thanked me for believing in him, and encouraging him, and that’s even though I didn’t play him in his four years at Port Adelaide,” Williams said.
After Richmond’s semi-final win over Geelong, Williams reached out to Nick Vlastuin, congratulating him on his poise, courage and leadership at a crucial moment in the third term.
Going back a couple of years, Williams helped Vlastuin meet his girlfriend on one of the Tigers’ development group’s surfing trips to Torquay.
Straddled on a foam long board, Williams began chatting to the female instructor and then introduced the Tigers’ gun defender.
“When I see him I always joke about the wedding, and where I will be sitting,” Williams laughs.
“He is a terrific person, and in all seriousness, I thought he got them — when everyone was a bit nervous — he just went back and took this really courageous mark and got smashed (by opponents), and kicked a goal from 50m.
“It took the anxiety off for everyone in the team and I texted him afterwards about the significance of that moment.
“And that’s only because of the solid connections you make, which lasts forever, and that’s the joy of being involved in footy — that’s the joy.”
For now, Williams will coach Ajax at amateur level for a second season, showing the same passion for the game and left-field thinking that has been the trademark of his coaching career.
“I love working with Ajax, meeting new people and learning how I may help them,” he said.
The desire still burns. Especially, that desire to help young people become better.
He says he is always on the lookout for a new concept, or a fresh method to inspire his players.
One day at Richmond, again, he gave the Tigers’ youngsters $20 each to create some random acts of kindness down the street.
Some handed out flowers. Others bought food and supplies for some people in need, and biscuits for their dog.
Then they talked about it together, appreciating their opportunity in life to play AFL.
“It was about stepping back and seeing what other people endure and look at the position we’re in and our role in the bigger picture,” he said.
“We (in football) have the chance to make people happy.”
Then there are the zany draft combine interviews where Williams would press and probe players about random things.
Like how many drinks they had at their last party or who bought their shirt. It’s all designed to see how the players react under pressure.
“You want to see how they respond and cope,” he said.
“Or whether you might be a follower or leader.
“I remember Jimmy Bartel one day just cracking up and laughing and carrying on with me and he said ‘mate, what are you on about here?’”
“I just grabbed him and hugged him and said ‘mate, I love ya’. I just knew he was going to be a star.”
Williams suspects his appetite and flair for innovation came from his father, and South Australian coaching great, Fos.
Williams remembers his father asking his sister, brother and himself to plot the players’ movements and disposals and post them at half-time in the rooms in the 1970s, long before GPS came into footy.
And then requesting trainers to carry red towels out on to the field late in quarters to indicate red time.
The Williams’ coaching legacy lives on in Alastair Clarkson, who started at Port, along with Hawthorn’s revered fitness boss Andrew Russell.
Williams says he treasures messages of thanks from Clarkson, for helping shape his journey.
“He has written things like that to me,” Williams says.
But the detail, he says, will remain personal.
Clarkson has won four premierships and is now one of the greatest coaches in the game’s history, and he is still going.
Clarkson, Russell, Hawthorn recruiter Geoff Morris, recruiter Chris Pelchen and even the IT man (Nick Russell) were key planks at Port and then moved on to spark Hawthorn’s golden era.
Even Hardwick first started under Williams in the Essendon reserves, before joining forces at Port Adelaide, and then Richmond.
But, unlike others, Williams and Hardwick have hardly been in contact this year.
Maybe, it’s just too awkward. “I’m sure in time we will get back together,” he said.
Williams did not get much of an explanation when he was moved on, but he doesn’t bear any grudges or anything.
Footy moves too quickly.
Williams says he always encouraged the Tigers’ players and staff to “dream big”.
A text message to the entire list on the day of Hawthorn’s 2015 Grand Final win over West Coast contained, in part, the words “See yourself involved ... feel yourself there. Look around and smile ... You belong.”
He is still having an impact on the next generation, helping Luke Power at times with the AFL’s prized under-16 academy players.
Williams is also involved in hand-selecting the Level 4 coaches.
And he helps coach the international projects who come to Australia to become the next Mason Cox, or Pearce Hanley.
Someone will catch his eye, and he will be hooked on their improvement, again.
But every day, or drill, is guaranteed to be slightly different.
Williams prefers simplicity and spontaneity over over-analysis, which he believes has become more prevalent in AFL.
“I love to have fun as a coach, I love to have variety, because I think the motivation of people has to be stimulated by variety,” he said.
“So how we are going to do this today is not going to be how we do it tomorrow.
“Otherwise you lose them. It (football) becomes robotic.
“I see a player and I want them to be the absolute best and if they have some great talent I want to see that flourish.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/richmond/mark-williams-opens-up-on-richmond-damien-hardwick-beating-cancer-and-matchmaking/news-story/2fc3a4e2892f6e4fd2573e0b7231ded6
