Williams described the victory as the club’s best-ever in a home-and-away season and the team received high praise for its performance.
But just six days later the Power undid all their hard work with a dismal display against the unbeaten St Kilda at AAMI Stadium.
The Power have been widely-tipped to rebound from last season’s disappointment with a top-four finish in 2009, but Williams said his side couldn’t afford to read too much into the positive press.
“We have to be a workman-like side and just go about doing our job week after week without getting ahead of ourselves,” Williams said on Wednesday.
“There’s no doubt that when you beat Hawthorn, the reigning premier, at the MCG you can get ahead of yourself and, as far as I’m concerned, we did,”
“What happens is that you have a good win and you bask in the glory a little longer than you should. We have to get back to the baseline of what we do best, do the basics really well and then we’ll get a very consistent result.”
Port Adelaide’s form has been spasmodic over the opening five rounds.
The Power recorded big wins over Hawthorn, Essendon and Melbourne, but lost by just as much to West Coast (50 points) and St Kilda (66 points).
Williams was confident fans would see the best Port Adelaide come to play in Showdown XXVI.
“We addressed a few issues that we weren’t happy with from last week,” he said.
“We’re coming off 13th last year. The Crows played finals and we were 13th. We are progressing. To be equal third now from 13th, you’d say we’re coming along and have improved a lot from last year.
“There is a hell of a long way to go, but looking at the bigger picture we’d say we’re moving along.”
Peter Burgoyne will return to the side this week, having served a two-match-ban for kneeing Dee Aaron Davey.
However, Shaun Burgoyne will miss at least another three weeks after undergoing minor surgery on his troublesome knee.
Young full-back Alipate Carlile (hip/ribs) trained away from the main group on Wednesday, but is expected to take his place in the line-up.
