IN THE four years since retiring from a 300-game, two-time All Australian, four-time best and fairest, and premiership-winning career with Port Adelaide, Kane Cornes has continued to create headlines.
His strong opinions on many media platforms regularly cut through the general media noise, often annoying the game's biggest name players, coaches and media rivals.
In the latest In The Game podcast with Damian Barrett, Cornes goes behind the opinions and also reveals the one regret he has from his time in mainstream media.
Cornes said he played his 300 AFL matches "on fear", using that emotion to will himself to success. He also revealed the hurt attached to his attempted 2011 axing by Port coach Matthew Primus.
"I was really disappointed with Matthew Primus' dealings with (brother) Chad and myself," Cornes said. "I thought (Chad) was really harshly treated, as were a couple of the other older guys."
Cornes won his fourth best and fairest in 2012, the season after Primus tried to force him to retire.
"It was difficult to play for a coach who didn't want you to be there for that 2012 season, and I don't think we spoke for the pre-season," Cornes said.
"I remember walking straight past him in the corridor. I was angry. He was angry, probably from not getting his way from the board, which had guaranteed him that it would pay out my contract.
"So I wasn't talking to a coach in the pre-season, and eventually he lost his job halfway through that year, and Ken Hinkley came in, thankfully, and the past couple of years of my career were as enjoyable as any."
Also in this week's In The Game, Cornes reveals he still has in his phone the final text message sent to him by Phil Walsh, a man who helped shape his career before his tragic death in 2015.
For the full Cornes In The Game interview, listen here ...
https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-08-01/ ... d-him-gone
PAFC. Forever.
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