When former Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams began cutting Michael Wilson’s jumper with a pair of scissors, the playing group thought their leader had “absolutely gone mad”.
But by the end of Williams’ stirring speech, each player was holding a piece of that special jumper — and had been deeply moved.
On the night before the Power’s 2007 Grand Final against Geelong, Williams used Wilson’s luckless story to motivate his troops.
Wilson ruptured his Achilles during the Power’s enormous preliminary final win over North Melbourne the week prior, ending his Grand Final dream and sidelining him for the next 12 months.
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It was the latest setback for Wilson in a career that had already seen him undergo multiple knee and shoulder reconstructions.
So less than 24 hours before the Grand Final, Williams stood in front of the Power playing group at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Melbourne and held Wilson’s matchday jumper from the previous week’s game up.
Speaking on AFL Media’s ‘What Really Happened’, former midfielder Kane Cornes said the group was initially puzzled by Williams’ actions.
“He got out some scissors and he said look: ‘Michael Wilson, a loved teammate, is not going to be out there with us as we run out there in front of 100,000 people tomorrow against Geelong at the MCG. He’s not going to be with us physically, but he’s going to be with us,’” Cornes told AFL Media.
“He starts cutting up this No. 21 guernsey … and we’re all thinking ‘Mark Williams has absolutely gone mad again’. The boys are whispering to each other: ‘What’s Chocco doing on the eve of the Grand Final?’
“Eventually he cuts the guernsey into 22 pieces. He got our property steward out the front and he said: ‘Alfie and the crew are going to stitch a piece of Michael Wilson’s jumper to your jumper … So you’re going to run out on the ground on the Grand Final in front of 100,000 with a piece of Michael Wilson as we run out onto the ground.’”
What started out as a seemingly bizarre speech quickly turned into one full of emotion.
“All of a sudden, absolute chills come over my body – and I’ve still got chills to this day thinking about it,” Cornes said.
“The thought of winning the Grand Final and having a piece of Michael Wilson sewed to our guernsey and facing him and hugging him after the result – which we’re all pretty confident, far too confident, that we were going to be successful the following day.”
However Williams’ attempt to unite the playing group fell flat, with the Power losing to Geelong by 119 points — the biggest ever margin in an AFL Grand Final.
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Cornes said it was “clearly the most embarrassing moment and day for the Port Adelaide Football Club”.
“I’ve often thought: ‘I wonder what ‘Wilbur’ was thinking, a man that has sacrificed so much for the Port Adelaide Football Club, the most courageous player that I’ve probably ever played with, as he was watching on in horror as Geelong decimated us on that Grand Final day,” he said.
“That was just a reminder to me as a youngish football at the time that there are absolutely no fairytales in football. And more often than not, it doesn’t end the way you think it’s going to end.”
