20 years on: The incredible legacy built by Mark Williams and Leigh Matthews

The 2004 AFL Grand Final was a significant day for many reasons.

First, Port Adelaide, a South Australian club steeped in history and SANFL success, claimed its maiden AFL premiership.

In doing so, the Power halted the Brisbane Lions’ quest to win four flags in a row.

Second, which we certainly weren’t aware of 20 years ago, is what that group of players from both clubs would achieve beyond their respective playing careers.

Sorry Port fans, this is not a reminisce or a stroll down memory lane. It’s more of a nod to the incredible footy IP that was on display at the MCG that day. It is a Grand Final with an alumni list without peer.

Remarkably, six players are senior now AFL coaches – four from the Lions and two from Port.

Damien Hardwick won three premiership at Richmond before making the move to the Gold Coast Suns in 2024.

Another hard-nosed defender in Chris Scott has coached Geelong to two flags. Scott’s Lions teammate Craig McRae led Collingwood to the 2023 premiership.

Michael Voss (Carlton), Brad Scott (Essendon) and Adam Kingsley (GWS) are also in charge of AFL clubs. All three have been to preliminary finals.

Jarrad Schofield, the seventh senior coach from that Grand Final, acted as West Coast’s caretaker for the last few months of the 2024 season.

Throw in ex-Suns coach Stuart Dew plus former Port coach Matthew Primus, who missed the ’04 decider through injury, and this is a distinguished group.

It is unprecedented how many players took the senior coaching pathway and even more impressive how many have played key roles elsewhere in the industry.

Current Bombers coach Scott also held a significant role at AFL House in between coaching spells at North Melbourne and returning to the caper in September 2022.

If you dig a bit deeper, Hawthorn’s four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson was assistant to Mark Williams before the Power’s big day. He departed Alberton in the wake of the qualifying final win, but his influence on the club’s first flag should not be understated.

Also alongside Williams were the late Phil Walsh (Adelaide) and Dean Bailey (Melbourne) who both coached clubs in their own right.

It’s exceptional what Williams, in particular, was able to procreate. He spawned a generation of men who have made successful careers for themselves after exiting ‘Choco University’.

The apple didn’t fall too far from the tree for Williams who grew up as the son of SA’s greatest footy brain, Fos Williams.

Being the offspring of a man who coached the Port Adelaide Magpies to an astonishing nine SANFL premierships must have rubbed off on Mark. (Fos won six of the nine flags as a playing coach).

The lessons he learned and how he mastered certain aspects of the coaching caper helped cultivate what we see in the game today through the likes of Hardwick and Kingsley.

“It’s quite amazing. To still think that they are adding to the football environment, it’s wonderful,” Williams told the AFL Record & SEN.com.au.

“I was lucky enough to be the son of a football coach, so I learnt a lot from the experience of going to so many games and listening to my dad.

“To see how he and our family cared for the players, I took a lot of that. On the other side, being a PE teacher, I was able to show the players how you prepare the week, how you prepare training, how you analyse sides.

“We put together a wonderful group of coaches that brought their own expertise to the group and offered a variety of ideas and inspiration to the players that they thought, ‘Aah, I could do this too’.

“We made it easy for them to understand in the way that we taught. Our environment was definitely a teaching environment.”

In 2004, Port Adelaide was certainly not considered one of the more affluent clubs in the AFL. It was all about finding ways to flourish amid these financial restraints which would impact some of those who are in esteemed positions today.

“We allowed them to be inquisitive. We tried a whole lot of alternative things and had the school of hard knocks there for a while as well, which meant that it wasn’t all just rosy,” Williams said.

From an individual perspective, Williams had an inkling that some of his charges would go on to coach, but you can never fully be sure which path a person will take.

Among those was Hardwick, who has been involved in six premierships as a player, coach and assistant coach, but could have gone in a different direction.

“He understood the game but probably didn’t want to spend too much time on the game while he was with us. He was happy to get home,” Williams said.

“He then went to Hawthorn with ‘Clarko’ (Alastair Clarkson) when he’d finished his footy career and that’s probably when he asked ‘What’s next?’ and started to decide (that coaching was).”

What rubbed off on Hardwick would also work its way into the psyche of Kingsley who was a key coaching figure in two of the three flags won at Richmond. He has been at the helm of the Giants for the past two seasons with a pair of top four finishes to his name already.

“I coached ‘Kingers’ in the reserves at Essendon so I’ve known him forever,” Williams said.

“He’s probably almost had a chip on his shoulder that as a rookie they have to go and prove something to everyone. I’m so proud of how far he’s come.”

Stuart Dew is another Power premiership player who entered the senior coaching world, spending almost six seasons with Gold Coast.

“Was he ever going to be a senior coach?” Williams said.

“No, I wasn’t sure about that, but I’m so proud of the opportunity he took.

“He went to Hawthorn after us and then to Sydney, so he learnt some really good stuff from other top coaches as well.”

From the Lions camp, the key senior coaching quartet has already been hugely successful in varying ways. Chris Scott has his two flags, McRae has one while Brad Scott and Voss each have made preliminary finals.

Premiership teammate Jonathan Brown says all four had differing degrees of coaching expertise in their make-up which was able to truly flourish through the guidance, direction and nurturing of the great Leigh Matthews and his Bears predecessor Robert Walls.

“Everywhere they’ve gone they’ve been involved in success and a big part of that comes from Leigh Matthews,” Brown said.

“Obviously, Robert Walls (Brisbane coach from 1991-95) was a premiership coach (at Carlton) too.

“Those guys knew how to build premiership success and knew the toughness and the intelligence required. They have an intimate knowledge about how to build premiership teams and not to lose sight of that.”

In particular it was the preparation as a player under four-time premiership coach Matthews which would be the catalyst for some.

The ethos of Matthews remains clear in what those coaches are attempting to achieve today.

“I can only speak from my experience with Leigh, but one of the things I loved and we all loved was that he would often say to us: ‘This is so we can cope at two o’clock on Grand Final day’. All of his coaching ‘offspring’ will never lose sight of that,” Brown said.

“Leigh would often say to us: ‘Success is where preparation and opportunity collide’, and really that is coaching.

“You just know that they’re not going to stray too far from the principles that Leigh Matthews instilled upon us.”

Brown was only in his early 20s when winning flags with the Lions but was perceptive enough to know which of his teammates might have had the competitiveness and work ethic to continue in the game once their playing days had finished.

It could have gone either way for one old colleague, Cats coach Scott.

“I was never sure with him because he always had other interests,” Brown said.

“It wouldn’t have surprised me if he headed off into the sunset. I knew he was extremely intelligent with a very good footy IQ, so it was probably just a matter of whether he wanted to (or not).

“He spoke openly about dipping his toe in the water and he went to Fremantle and really grew into it and loved it. He was pretty young when he got the Geelong job but clearly not before time because he won the flag in his first year.

“That shows he’s a very good man manager. It doesn’t matter how footy smart you are, if you’re not a good man manager you can’t come in and win a premiership in your first year.”

Twin brother Brad spent a decade at the helm of the Kangaroos before holding down significant roles at AFL House before his coaching return with Essendon last season.

“I thought he was more inclined to go into coaching,” Brown said.

“He has a very good work ethic, he’s very structured. So it was either going to be footy coaching or footy administration, and now he’s done both.

McRae, who Williams coached at Glenelg in 1993 and 1994, led Collingwood to a premiership in just his second season in charge.

His pathway to the top, which includes coaching juniors in Queensland and a Richmond VFL flag, was as thorough and balanced as they come.

“He’s a beauty, what a unicorn,” Brown said of McRae.

“In terms of growing out your CV, I don’t think anyone can claim to filling it out more extensively than Craig McRae in regards to being a senior AFL coach.

“He was around a few clubs with different mentors. He not only relied on the benefit and experience of Leigh Matthews, but Damien Hardwick, Nathan Buckley, Alastair Clarkson, just to name a few.

“Obviously ‘Choco’ (Williams) was there as well so we’ve got to say he’s probably taken something from him as well.”

It has been McRae’s authenticity and his bond with the humble role player that has allowed him to flourish.

“Not that the others aren’t,” Brown said. “‘Fly’ (McRae) is different to the Scott boys and ‘Vossy’ in regard to his personality, but he’s coached authentically.

“He has coached with great empathy and great connection with his players and he knew that was his one-wood, which he’s leant into as a coach.

“We often laugh because he would say, ‘What’s this? I’m finally getting noticed. This is a bit uncomfortable because all of a sudden people are noticing me when I’m going down the milk bar’.

“He hasn’t been noticed his whole footy career because he was an under-the-radar player. Extremely important to us, extremely influential, but didn’t get a hell of a lot of outside publicity but was an unbelievable player for us.

“So he understood the importance of the role player and he had great empathy for that. I think that would have been one area in particular that he has over the other coaches that he can relate to.”

And then there is Voss the inspirational triple flag-winning Lions skipper.

Some may say his initial coaching foray with Brisbane was unsuccessful, but it merely set him up for a second crack with the Blues.

“He was the most destined (to coach) because he was an inspirational captain with great leadership qualities. I thought he’d go into coaching,” Brown said.

“He had a successful job in the media, but he was committed to coaching and maybe ahead of his time got a senior gig.

“I still want people to remember that he played finals and won a final in his first year as coach (2009), people will forget about that.

“But obviously the second time around you have more experience and know how to deal with management stuff, especially some of the off-field things.

“He’s just a great leader, speaks well, guys just want to follow him. I suppose the overarching principle with all those guys is they know what success looks like.”

Add to this list seven 2024 assistant coaches. Five from Port – Chad Cornes (Port Adelaide), Josh Carr (Port Adelaide), Brett Montgomery (GWS), Schofield (West Coast) and Brendon Lade (Western Bulldogs – Lade also coached a senior game at St Kilda in 2020), and two from Brisbane – Justin Leppitsch (Collingwood) and Nigel Lappin (Geelong).

Two ex-Lions were VFL head coaches in 2024 – Luke Power at Carlton and Blake Caracella at Essendon, although he has now returned to Richmond as an assistant. It doesn’t stop at coaches either.

Kane Cornes is one of the biggest names in the footy media, creating headline after headline with his honest takes.

Williams has been more surprised by what Cornes has done with himself than any other player he coached.

“Kane’s self-analysis and ability to handle criticism as a footballer was as little as any I’d ever come across,” he said.

“He was anxious about results and his own performance, even though he was best on ground.

“This is a man going completely out of his comfort zone.”

Alastair Lynch has also made a name for himself in the media, Shaun Burgoyne has dipped his toe in media water and so has Chris Johnson.

Josh Mahoney has been in top jobs at clubland and now holds a significant position at the AFL as the general manager of footy operations, while former captain and arguably the Power’s greatest ever AFL player, Warren Tredrea, is now a Port board member and prominent Adelaide media personality.

A truly remarkable group that blossomed as players before giving so much back to the game over the last two decades.

2004 GRAND FINAL LINE-UPS

PORT ADELAIDE
B: M. Wilson, D. Wakelin, M. Bishop
HB: D. Hardwick, C. Cornes, B. Montgomery
C: J. Mahoney, J. Carr, K. Cornes
HF: B. Pickett, W. Tredrea (c), P. Burgoyne
F: T. Thurstans, B. Lade, G. Wanganeen
R: D. Brogan, R. James, S. Burgoyne
I/C: A. Kingsley, D. Cassisi, S. Dew, J. Schofield
Coach: M. Williams

BRISBANE LIONS
B: C. Johnson, M. Michael, D. White
HB: C. Scott, J. Leppitsch, B. Scott
C: J. Akermanis, N. Lappin, S. Black
HF: C. McRae, J. Brown, M. Pike
F: D. Bradshaw, A. Lynch, R. Copeland
R: C. Keating, M. Voss (c), L. Power
I/C: D. McLaren, R. Hadley, T. Notting, B. Caracella
Coach: L. Matthews