Mark Williams' resignation yesterday ignited some passion in his Port Adelaide side for about 40 minutes last night - passion that had remained largely dormant for seven weeks - but in the end not even the emotion surrounding the premiership coach's farewell game could inspire a win.

Port jumped to a 36-point lead in that golden early stanza - admittedly with a huge gale at their backs - and for a while it looked as though they might give Choco, the grand old stager, the send-off he deserved.

And at the quarter-time siren, with the home side up by five goals, Josh Carr - a Williams favourite son brought back in for this match - was involved in a skirmish with a few Collingwood players and it seemed just like old times. When the coach routinely used to sool his attack dog on to the opposition to ruffle a few feathers.

Sure enough, Port was reeled in by Collingwood, a far superior unit in just about every respect at this particular stage of their development - and the 2010 season.

By half-time, the scores were level as Alan Didak, Dayne Beams and Tarkyn Lockyer all chimed in with late goals and that just about signalled the end of Port's resistance.

But this came as no great surprise. For this was exactly the reason Williams had decided he'd had enough: this team has lost eight in a row, has lost confidence, form and direction - and the club's immediate prospects hardly have a rosy glow about them. The final margin to the Pies was 26 points.

TV footage showed Williams hugging Kane Cornes, Dean Brogan and others in the rooms during the half-time break.

Injured former skipper Warren Tredrea said in an interview with Channel Seven that Williams had spoken to the players about lunchtime to inform them of his decision and, so emotional was he, that he couldn't look at them; he just kept facing the whiteboard at the front of their meeting room. In the end, he broke down in tears and couldn't continue.

So here was a coach who remain loved by his players, or most of them anyway, till the bitter end. And it's not many departing coaches who can make that boast.

The club-record eight straight defeats would have produced recriminations, bickering and back-stabbing at most clubs. But, at Port, Williams still seemed to have strong support among the players and staff, even while the place was on the verge of falling apart.

Earlier, there had been more tears at the media conference at which he publicly announced his resignation.

It was, of course, Williams' emotion and passion which helped Port become such a force in those early years of the millennium. In those four seasons between 2001 and 2004, the club won at least 16 games and finished on top of the ladder three times.

And eventually, after underperforming terribly in the finals, Williams led the club to its first AFL flag in 2004, when they stopped the Brisbane juggernaut in its tracks. That was the day Carr niggled the hell out of Simon Black and others, Damien Hardwick threw his weight around, the silky smooth Brisbane midfield was thrown out of stride and, when the game opened up in the second half, electric Port players such as Byron Pickett turned in blinders.

It was also the day that Williams, always the antithesis of the modern po-faced coach and one who could never hide his feelings, walked on to the arena and pretended to choke himself with his tie - a pointed gesture aimed at those who had accused the club of choking in finals.

Now, after his 274th match, Choco has called it quits and a game that is becoming more beige by the season has lost one of its truly colourful characters.