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Williams steps into Perth breach

Williams steps into Perth breach

Trevor Williams is a reluctant coach.

Coerced into guiding Perth to the end of the season after Damien McMahon was sacked last week, Williams will spend the next two months preparing the ground for the incoming coach.

"The club has an agenda that it wants me to facilitate over the next eight games," he said.

"That is to explore our list a bit deeper to see who can take the footy club forward.

"We will try different players in different positions and give a few young blokes a go and see what they can do.

"Perth clearly have to find out who can help the footy club climb."

Williams identified State forward Brennan Stack, who will return against East Fremantle at East Fremantle Oval today after a lacklustre period that included several weeks in the reserves, as one player who had the chance to prove he still had a passion for the game.

"It was a matter of reigniting his enthusiasm and we think the timing could be right for him to show that he still wants to be a league player," Williams said.

Hawthorn premiership wingman Chance Bateman will also play his first match of the season after overcoming a chronic calf ailment. It will be his 250th State league and AFL match and comes after he identified the NAIDOC round a month ago as his ideal return to action.

"Chance hasn't had any impact this year, but he will play after building nicely over the past three reserves games," Williams said.

"He is confident the body will hold up.

"He wants to finish this year positively and get through consecutive games of footy before deciding what he does next year."

Williams is adamant that he will not seek another senior position and accepted the caretaker role only at the club's insistence.

"They said I was employed by them and that I was the senior assistant and that Perth needed me to do the job," he said. "But I would be really keen to stay on as an assistant next year."

Williams had a fate similar to McMahon's when he was sacked by Peel 11 games into his third season in 2012.

He joined the Demons last season after a coaching career that included 51 senior games at Peel and two colts premierships.

Senior players Mitch Morton (hamstring) and Chris Billings (suspension) will also return against a Sharks team that has lost Brock O'Brien to a hamstring injury and prime midfield mover Mark McGough, who will attend a wedding.