Port Adelaide premiership coach Mark Williams has vowed to finally find three-time Werribee VFL best and fairest winner Matt Hanson an AFL club at season's end.
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Williams has taken over the Werribee job from John Lamont in an appointment that initially sent shockwaves through football circles.
The 60-year-old coaching great behind the 2004 AFL flag win and three successive minor premierships for the Power singled out Hanson in a weekend interview on Melbourne sports radio.
The star member of the 2013 South Launceston TSL premiership has been overlooked in the past four AFL drafts amid three straight club best and fairests after also being regarded as one of the elite VFL midfielders.
Williams did not hesitate to put Hanson's name forward to any club when asked do semi-professional players have the same commitment to the game as Port Adelaide's heralded AFL champions did under his reign.
The 23-year-old Hanson was lauded for his relentless determination and workrate to better himself further.
“There’s a guy down there who gets there really early, Matt Hanson,” Williams said.
“He’s won three best and fairests over the last four years, and I look at him and he just wants to know what is it that he’s missing to make into the AFL."
AFL clubs have started in recent seasons to take a punt on mature-age players from the leading state leagues.
The latest pick was former Williamstown gun onballer Michael Gibbons, who had won two VFL Liston Trophy awards and had been overlooked in consecutive six AFL drafts until Carlton used one of its pre-season supplemental selection picks on the luckless 23-year-old.
Williams believed that Hanson's case bore a striking resemblance to his peer.
"Gibbons has now kicked three [goals] on debut in the practice game the other day," Williams said.
"It says to him [Hanson] that I'm a chance.
“So I’m going to give him every chance to get there.
"He does everything that I would ever ask and more.
"He’s totally invested in his career getting somewhere.”
Hanson's hopes took a dive midway through last season when he missed three months. Williams indicated the former Scotch College student had recovered fully from a fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his foot.