‘There were times when you were terrified out on an operation. It was always controlled in a sense because you had a network around you. What I did bring back was the restlessness, the uncertainty and the trauma. It never leaves you and it was 45 years ago. There’s still an impact there.’

—Graham Cornes, January 2018

Graham Cornes played 364 games of football for Glenelg and South Adelaide in the SANFL. As a coach, he won two premierships with Glenelg and was the inaugural coach of the Adelaide Crows. He is a passionate South Australian, an advocate for SANFL football and a man who lived the feud between Victoria and SA when interstate rivalry was at its peak.

His loyalty to SA is legendary. It is not a product of birthplace – Graham is a Victorian, born in Melbourne on 31 March 1948. His first memory of football is watching his father play B-grade footy for Lorne, south-west of Melbourne, on the foreshore oval in the 1950s. A kid in the clubrooms, he absorbed the yelling, the backslaps and the coach, a solitary figure above the team, imploring his men to victory: ‘I can remember my father taking me into the change rooms when I was four. That has a big impact on a young boy. My father imbued in me a love of the game.’

That love transferred across the border to Adelaide. When his parents divorced in 1956, Graham went with his father to Glenelg and then to Reynella, south of Adelaide. He played his first game for the Reynella Colts under-14s in 1959. At 11, he played three years above his age to make up numbers. After leaving school he moved to Whyalla, a seaport on the east coast of the Eyre Peninsula, taking a job with BHP. After a year with Central Whyalla’s Colts, he moved into senior football at 17.

In 1967, Harry Kernahan, on a four-year sabbatical from Glenelg, was playing for South Whyalla. Kernahan played 176 games with Glenelg, captaining the club and representing SA in ten state games. He also fathered three sons, Stephen, David and Gary, who made their own mark in football. After a game between Central Whyalla and South Whyalla, Kernahan said hello to Graham, sizing him up. He might have been on sabbatical but he was still hooked into his former club. He told Glenelg coach Neil Kerley about the tall, skinny, blond-haired bloke running around for Central Whyalla, and Kerley was interested.

Kerley called Graham and invited him to Glenelg when his season with Central Whyalla was over. On a Tuesday in August, Graham drove 400 km to train with Glenelg. At the end of the session, Kerley called him over and said, ‘We’ll give you a run on the weekend.’

On the Thursday night, listening to the radio as the teams were read out, Graham expected to be playing in the reserves. His selection in the senior team left him stunned: ‘It was an unbelievable start. I trained only once with the team. Kerley recruited me straight out of a season of footy for Central Whyalla. It was quite unusual.’

Graham debuted in Round 19 against Sturt at Unley Oval. Glenelg, needing victory to make the finals, won by 53 points. In the elimination final, Port Adelaide won by 46 points, and after three games of senior football, Graham was given a contract for 1968. He would also be contracted elsewhere. He was only 19.

In 1964 the Australian government introduced compulsory national service for 20-year-old men. Selection was to be random, based on a birthdate lottery. In March 1966, with the Vietnam War raging, the government made all national servicemen available to fight in Australian Army units or on secondment with American forces. Early in 1968 the lottery fell on Graham’s birthdate. He could have avoided national service by joining the Citizen Military Forces, which would exempt him from overseas conflict, or he could have claimed to be a conscientious objector. Instead, he deferred his draft notice until the end of the 1968 football season.

Glenelg finished fifth and missed the finals, and Graham won his first best and fairest award. It was only his second season. He remembers an official making the announcement at a club function: ‘I didn’t even know what a best and fairest was. It was a shock.’

There was another shock coming. On 3 October 1968 he flew to Melbourne and was taken by bus to Puckapuny army base. After a month of training, he was allowed his first visitors. His father brought along Neil Trezise. A former Geelong premiership player, Trezise had a Form 4 and $400 for Graham if he signed it. The Form 4 would tie him to Geelong for the next two years, if he wanted to play VFL football. Graham pocketed the money and, during the 1969 football season, flew from Sydney to Adelaide every second week to play for Glenelg.

About 20 footballers from the VFL and SANFL were conscripted by the Australian Army during the Vietnam War. Kevin Sheedy, Stan Alves and Royce Hart were among the recruits. Based in Adelaide while on national service, Hart trained with Glenelg and flew to Melbourne each weekend to play for Richmond. When Glenelg finished on top and qualified for the Grand Final, Hart was asked to play. Graham was halfway through jungle training at the Canungra military base in Queensland when he was granted leave for the Grand Final. He started on the bench. Hart started at full-forward and ended up concussed. Sturt won by 65 points. ‘It wasn’t that successful,’ Graham said.

Early in 1970, Graham’s card was drawn. He was going to Vietnam. ‘When we went there I had a pretty good job,’ he said. ‘I was in the mortar platoon, which is a support company. You went out on operations but we were a fire-support base.’ He fired mortar into the jungle to clear out the enemy and give the riflemen a clear path. He found army discipline difficult: ‘I was a bit of an obstructionist.’ Charged with disobeying a command, he spent a week in the military detention barracks at Long Tan. Upon release, he was charged again with disobeying a command. ‘I did get in a little bit of trouble,’ he said.

The battalion commander, wanting to make better use of his temperament, transferred him to a rifle platoon. ‘I ended up carrying a machine gun for the section,’ Graham said. ‘None of it was pleasant. It was one of the more difficult roles a soldier could have.’

Fear

Of his time in Vietnam, Graham said, ‘There were times when you were terrified. You might be standing watch in the middle of the night when the rest of the section is asleep. You’re the one responsible for being on guard and you’re in the middle of a rubber plantation or a paddy field and you just don’t know what’s happening.

‘The actual times of contact, they were an interesting study because they were quite exhilarating as they were happening. It was only afterwards that the fear and the nerves hit. You might be doing a sweep of a contact zone so you have to line up in a single line and sweep through the area. That’s pretty scary. You might be the guy on the end and you see a blood trail going off into the scrub. You don’t know whether someone’s lying in wait for you. I think most infantry combat soldiers are affected in some way by the experiences they have during their service.’

After eight months in Vietnam, Graham was discharged. He went to Nui Dat on Thursday 27 August for a flight to Saigon. From there he departed for Sydney, landing at about 10 p.m. After spending the night at the airport, an early flight took him home to Adelaide. Wayne Phillis, a Glenelg teammate, picked him up on the Friday morning and on the Saturday, two days after flying home from Vietnam, he played for Glenelg’s reserves. ‘I was able to come straight out of a combat situation into a football club,’ he said. ‘I had a support network around me.’

The following week, Graham lined up for Glenelg’s senior team in the semifinal against North Adelaide. A 16-point win put the club into the preliminary final against Port Adelaide. In an upset, Glenelg won by three goals. Another Grand Final beckoned. Sturt were waiting. Almost 50 000 people watched them pull away in the third quarter before winning by 21 points. They had won back-to-back premierships against Glenelg, and Graham had played in two losing Grand Finals in two seasons, interrupted by war.

Playing and training provided distraction and relief from his memories of Vietnam. Graham loved being home among family and mates, eating decent food and having a bed to sleep in. ‘It was a celebration,’ he said. ‘We played in the finals and got beaten in the Grand Final. Six months prior I could never see myself doing it – we were ankle-deep in mud or trying to wade across a river.’ At the end of the season, he was troubled by restlessness. Many Vietnam veterans had difficulty when they returned home. There was no debriefing process, no winding down. Graham felt it: ‘It was really difficult to assimilate, but I had the footy club. For that I will be eternally grateful.’

While on national service, Graham missed a season and a half of football. The Form 4 he signed with Geelong expired. In 1971 and 1972, Glenelg missed the finals. Graham won his second best and fairest award in 1972. Six rounds into the 1973 season, they were a different team, and a Round 7 loss to North Adelaide was their only defeat for the year. After finishing on top, they thrashed Sturt in the second semifinal. Graham was about to play his third Grand Final.

Although Glenelg were favourites, North Adelaide wouldn’t lie down and the lead changed repeatedly. Late in the last quarter, Graham took a spectacular mark and kicked a goal from the pocket, putting Glenelg back in front by a point. A goal after the siren sealed a seven-point win. ‘It was a relief as much as anything,’ Graham said. ‘We’d been the dominant team all year. The club had only won one premiership, in 1934. The pressure on us was enormous. It was a big thrill.’

In the mid-1970s, Graham won his third best and fairest. ‘We had so many great players,’ he said. ‘It was a bit of a lottery at Glenelg if you won a best and fairest.’ His awards were mentioned across the border, and South Melbourne officials came to Adelaide with an offer. North Melbourne officials did the same. Graham wasn’t going anywhere. Playing in one of the SANFL’s great eras, he was one of the stars. ‘The three outstanding players in my time were Barrie Robran, Russell Ebert and Malcolm Blight,’ he said. ‘We had Rick Davies, Paul Bagshaw, Peter Carey – a lot of great players. I never saw myself in that category.’

Three VFL clubs offered Graham a contract, but they were offers he couldn’t accept. Glenelg always made sure he was contracted. ‘We had such a good competition,’ he said. ‘People in Victoria never fully appreciated how important the SANFL was and how good the standard was.’

At the end of the 1978 season, North Melbourne’s Ron Joseph flew to Adelaide to meet a few SANFL players. He sat down with Graham and laid it out. North Melbourne, after losing the Grand Final to Hawthorn, wanted to bolster their forward line. ‘We want you,’ Joseph said. ‘It’s your last chance.’ Graham signed a contract with the Kangaroos. He was 30, but would turn 31 before the 1979 season started. North Melbourne paid Glenelg $50,000 to secure his services.

North Melbourne – a short stay

There was a complication – at the end of the 1978 season, Graham had booked a six-week holiday with his wife Pam, from mid-December to the end of January. Joseph was okay with the holiday, but Graham didn’t get back to North Melbourne until the first week of February, having missed a month of pre-season training. ‘I always thought I was behind the ball in terms of preparation,’ he said.

North Melbourne had recruited a bunch of veterans for the 1979 season, including Ebert, Gary Dempsey, Kevin Bryant and John Murphy. ‘When I got there, I think it was the greatest collection of football talent ever assembled,’ Graham said. ‘Club champions, Magarey Medallists, Sandover Medallists, Brownlow Medallists, club captains and state captains.’ He played the first two games in the forward pocket, kicking three goals, but was dropped to the reserves in Round 3. ‘If you weren’t on top of your game, there was someone else to take your spot,’ he said.

Ray Jordon was coaching North Melbourne’s reserves. Hard and unrelenting, he is remembered for nurturing young talent through tough training and tough talk. He didn’t discriminate, no matter who was in his side. ‘Ray wasn’t a great fan of mine,’ Graham said. ‘He and I clashed a fair bit.’ At 31, after 13 years of football, Graham was a senior player. He didn’t need abuse – he needed to get fitter and play better. ‘Ray Jordon was a very autocratic coach who could bully younger players,’ he said. ‘An older player wasn’t going to tolerate that sort of behaviour.’ Despite clashing with Jordon, Graham did what he was told. After five games in the reserves, he came back in Round 8 against Fitzroy, kicking three goals from 13 possessions. In Round 9 against Melbourne, he kicked three goals from 20 possessions.

With expansion in mind, the VFL sent North Melbourne and Hawthorn to Sydney in Round 10. The VFL’s first game played outside Melbourne for premiership points was scheduled for Sunday afternoon and televised live into Victoria. At the SCG, Graham played at full-forward, opposed to Kelvin Moore. In a 51-point loss, he kicked one goal from five possessions. ‘Ron Joseph and Ron Barassi called me in on Monday and said it’s not working out,’ Graham said.

‘We’re going to drop you this week,’ Barassi said.

‘Clearances close on June 30,’ Joseph said. ‘If you want to go back to Adelaide we won’t stand in your way.’

Graham had a week to think about it. Against St Kilda at Moorabbin, he started the reserves game in the centre and found some form. Phil Baker, North Melbourne’s full-forward, injured his knee in the reserves game and never played VFL football again. After the game, Graham was in the grandstand watching the seniors when Blight injured a knee. ‘In the same day they’ve lost both full-forwards,’ he said. After the game, Joseph found Graham in the rooms and said, ‘We don’t want you to go home now – can you stay?’ But Graham had made plans to return to Adelaide. Glenelg, having sold him for $50,000, had already allocated $25,000 to buy him back. He told Joseph he was leaving. ‘It hadn’t worked out,’ he said. ‘The only person you can blame is yourself. You have to put your selection beyond doubt, and I didn’t.’

A week after quitting North Melbourne, Graham lined up for Glenelg. He felt the standard of SANFL football was similar to the VFL: ‘It wasn’t as big a deal as we thought it was. It was a good experience. North Melbourne were a good club. It was really important in terms of my formative years as a coach with philosophies and disciplines. I’m glad I did it.’

Change at home

Chad Cornes was born into a Glenelg family on 12 November 1979. Graham’s first son was destined for a life in football. As Chad took his first steps, his dad was playing another season of SANFL football. He was 34 when he played his last game for Glenelg in 1982. After the season, John Halbert quit as coach. Graham offered to captain-coach but Glenelg officials thought he was too young. When South Adelaide offered him the same job, Graham accepted.

Kane Cornes was born on 5 January 1983, about a month after Graham signed his contract with South Adelaide. Like his brother, Kane was born into football. Like his brother, he made his own name in football. Chad has fleeting memories of being at South Adelaide games in 1983 and 1984, sitting in the grandstand, ‘but I can’t remember watching Dad play’.

By 1985, Harry Kernahan, who had recommended Graham to Glenelg 20 years earlier, was the club’s general manager and wanted Graham back. ‘I had to wrestle with that decision to go back to Glenelg,’ Graham said. ‘It was the right decision.’

He took his sons to training, and on match days they were in the rooms before the game, at half-time and after the game. ‘He was really inclusive with us,’ Chad said. ‘It was great to hang around your footy heroes and get to know them. The boys were good to us as well. We were pretty lucky.’ Kane remembers being in Glenelg’s clubrooms at the age of three or four, running around with a footy in his hands. Chad and Kane, like most kids, were caught up in the carnival atmosphere at Glenelg – the crowd noise, the heroes on the field and the blare of the siren. ‘It was like a second home for us,’ Kane said. ‘Great childhood memories of hanging around change rooms. We rode the wins and losses with Dad – shattered if we lost, over the moon if we won. It was a great time to be a kid.’

Graham lifted Glenelg into third place in his first year. A month later he coached them to the premiership, a 57-point win against North Adelaide. Amid the celebrations, he was circumspect. Victoria kept calling. ‘After the first year, Stephen Kernahan and Tony McGuinness went,’ he said. Kernahan went to Carlton, McGuinness to Footscray. They left a hole but Graham held his nerve, guiding Glenelg to second place in 1986. North Adelaide won the second semifinal by 24 points, forcing Glenelg into a preliminary final against Woodville. Victory put Glenelg into another Grand Final, and in front of 50 538 people, they belted North Adelaide by 48 points. After two years at the club, Graham had coached two premierships.

A hero at home

Chad and Kane liked to raid Graham’s box of memorabilia filled with photos, medals and jumpers. In the garage, Graham hung a photo of the mark he had taken in the 1973 Grand Final. ‘He had some old highlight videotapes,’ Chad said. ‘I liked to watch those. He had the ’73 mark and goal on tape.’

The Cornes brothers lived across the road from Glenelg Primary School and next door to the Glenelg Football Club. The primary school used Glenelg’s ground for their games, giving kids a thrill at playing on a big league oval. With a small backyard, the brothers went to a nearby park after school and met up with a bunch of other kids, splitting up into teams. ‘I was always against Chad,’ Kane said. ‘He was hard on me and pretty physical, certainly took it out on me. I wouldn’t say it helped me having an older brother.’ Chad is almost four years older than Kane. He might have been rough on his brother, but Kane was learning from the tackles and bumps. ‘We always had a footy in our hands,’ Chad said. ‘Kane was naturally talented from the word go.’

At Glenelg Primary School, Chad became mates with a kid called Jaran, whose father, Geoff Blethyn, had played for Essendon, Claremont and Port Adelaide. Blethyn coached Chad through primary school. A short, skinny kid, he loved to play: ‘To be honest, I was really average. I didn’t think footy was going to be my career.’

From 1987 to 1990, Graham coached Glenelg to another three Grand Finals, all defeats. North Adelaide avenged back-to-back losses in 1987 and Port Adelaide prevailed in 1988 and 1990. ‘They were tough losses,’ Graham said. ‘In the end, you get all you deserve.’

The Adelaide Crows – more expansion

Graham quit Glenelg at the end of the 1990 season with a record of two premierships from five Grand Finals in six years as coach. ‘It was a good ride,’ he said. ‘You look back and think you might’ve done it differently or done it better, but it is what it is.’

Proving his ability as coach beyond the SANFL, he also coached South Australia to nine wins from 11 State of Origin games, including six wins against Victoria: ‘We had this great run against Victoria in those epic games. We won the State of Origin carnival at the start of 1988.’ In 1987 and 1988 he was named the All Australian coach. In that era, it was an outstanding achievement. (In 1999 the AFL changed the rules and the premiership coach became the All Australian coach.)

After moving South Melbourne north to become the Sydney Swans in 1982, the VFL admitted the West Coast Eagles and Brisbane Bears in 1987. To ensure a more inclusive competition, the league changed its name to the AFL in 1990. Expansion was a key fundamental.

At the end of the 1989 season, seven of the ten SANFL clubs recorded financial losses. In May 1990, ten club directors sat around a table flanked by other officials. Everyone in the room knew the AFL wanted a South Australian team, but the directors baulked at the $4 million licence fee. Believing the AFL was dealing directly with Port Adelaide and Norwood, they struck an agreement: the SANFL would reject the AFL’s overtures until 1993, allowing the local competition to stabilise and hopefully reduce the cost of a licence.

Port Adelaide had other ideas. In July 1990, at a secret meeting held in Quorn, some 360 km north of Adelaide, Port officials emerged with a ‘heads of agreement’ to join the AFL. The reaction among other club and SANFL officials was predictable. ‘You had to live in Adelaide to understand,’ Graham said. ‘That was the most tempestuous time in the history of the SANFL. It just exploded.’ Port Adelaide were outcast and the SANFL took the issue to court. Justice Trevor Olsson handed down an injunction preventing Port’s bid. The AFL, despite the setback, refused to back down, asking the SANFL to put forward a counter bid. If not, the AFL would fight through the courts to admit Port Adelaide. ‘It was obvious we had a South Australian team coming in,’ Graham said. ‘I was asked to apply as coach.’ In August, when he was still coaching Glenelg, he made his presentation in front of the interim board. A few weeks later he was invited back for another presentation. He was appointed as inaugural coach while Glenelg was in the finals and three weeks later, on 11 October, the Adelaide Football Club was created. ‘Then the fun started,’ Graham said.

The AFL excluded Adelaide from the 1990 national draft but allowed the club to sign ten former SANFL players who were out of contract. Clubs scrambled to re-sign their South Australian players. ‘Guys like Gavin Wanganeen, Matthew Robran, David Hynes and Richard Champion, they’d already gone,’ Graham said. ‘We missed out on those players. It was a horrible time.’

The Adelaide Football Club, upon creation, was in name only. ‘The club had a general manager and a coach,’ Graham said. ‘Nothing else.’ A list of possible players was put together and invitations were sent out. The first training session was held at a rough oval in November. There were no media present. ‘We had a squad of 60 guys we’d selected to train. Not all of them came,’ Graham said. ‘Our first training session we didn’t even have footballs.’

Inside a month, Adelaide secured Football Park as their home ground. They bought singlets, shorts and a bunch of footballs. During pre-season training, they skipped from ground to ground. ‘All you need is an oval, some footballs and a place to run,’ Graham said. ‘At the time, no one had any idea how big the Crows were going to be.’ Adelaide were being ignored by the media and the public. Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy helped put the club firmly in the spotlight. To kick off the 1991 season he helped organise a trial game between Essendon and Adelaide at Football Park. ‘No one knew what to expect,’ Graham said. ‘There were 42 000 people there. Roads were blocked, people couldn’t get in. It was unbelievable.’

Adelaide defeated Essendon by 27 points and from that moment on, everybody in SA, including the media, understood what the Crows meant to Adelaide. Graham, with a high-profile role, was a public figure. Chad was 11 and Kane was seven. The boys were used to football. ‘Dad was just like any other dad,’ Chad said. ‘We didn’t know any different. He was just our dad.’

On 22 March 1991, Adelaide played Hawthorn at Football Park in front of 44 902 people, and their 86-point win dispelled all the doubts. They played like a champion team, not a bunch of players who had been training together for just three months. The win set in motion a gritty brand of hysteria on the part of the South Australian public. ‘We’d always had an inferiority complex,’ Graham said. ‘We always felt we were striving for recognition. Victorians never really appreciated how good South Australian footballers were and how good South Australian football could be.’

Victorians had bragging rights. The best footballers succeeded in the VFL/AFL. At the end of every SANFL season another raid began, with Victorian clubs offering SANFL players money and fame. ‘We always felt we were trying to impress them,’ Graham said. ‘The only way you could do that was to beat them.’ Under Graham, Adelaide set out to beat the Victorians and every other club in the country. They could win at home, but found it harder interstate. At the end of their first season, they finished ninth, three games out of the top six. In 1992 there was little change. Again Adelaide finished ninth.

The Cornes boys – watching on

Kane remembers being surrounded by players he idolised. He watched Adelaide train then went into the clubrooms, asking for a handpass or offering a kick to AFL footballers. ‘We must’ve been pretty annoying to the players,’ he said, ‘but as a kid it was brilliant.’ On game day, with Graham preparing for the match, the boys were on an adventure, sitting in the stands, roaring with the cheer squad or wandering around the ground. After the game they’d enter the rooms, rejoicing in victory or sulking in defeat. ‘We just couldn’t get enough of it,’ Kane said. ‘We loved it.’

In 1993, Tony Modra was the biggest name in South Australian football. Heading into the Round 19 game against Fitzroy at Princes Park, he needed seven goals to reach his century. Chad and Kane were among the cheer squad. When Modra kicked his 100th goal, the crowd invaded the field. Chad led the charge, with Kane following on. Vision of Modra’s goal is on YouTube. ‘If you know what you’re looking for you can find Chad,’ Kane said. ‘He was one of the first ones out there.’

Adelaide finished the season in fifth place. Against Hawthorn in the elimination final, they took a 25-point lead into half-time. Hawthorn nagged away at the margin but Adelaide won by 15 points, proving to the critics that they could win a final in Melbourne. After losing the semifinal to Carlton by three goals, they had one more chance in the preliminary final against Essendon. At the MCG, they led by 42 points at half-time. Before the players ran out for the second half, Graham gathered them in a tight huddle. He was into his speech, saying, ‘You’re in front because you’ve played well’, when Mark Bickley farted. The noise was interruption enough. The smell broke the huddle and the mood. No one could concentrate. Graham couldn’t continue. No one would have thought a fart could have so much impact on a game of football.

In the third quarter, Essendon got a couple of early goals. Andrew Jarman could have reclaimed the momentum but missed a set shot from the top of the goal square. Graham put Scott Lee loose in defence but Essendon kicked six goals to one. ‘There’s frustration when you’re sitting there watching it,’ Graham said. ‘I was trying to plug holes. A sinking feeling came over me.’ The final quarter was a grind. Essendon kicked five goals and won by 11 points. It remains one of the biggest-ever comebacks in a final. ‘We weren’t able to go on with it,’ Graham said. ‘We couldn’t stem the flow. The anger at times crept in about some of the umpiring decisions.’ Wanganeen received eight free kicks for the game and Essendon won the free-kick count 32–15. ‘You can’t use that as a rational reason,’ Graham said. ‘In the end you get what you deserve.’

Heading into the 1994 season, the hurt lingered. Graham remained disappointed with a few players who hadn’t prepared properly for the 1993 finals series. During pre-season training, he was harsh on players who were undisciplined with regard to rest, food and rehydration. ‘My philosophy was the harder you work, the more success you’ll have,’ he said. If a player was struggling for form, he could work himself out of it provided he prepared properly. ‘In terms of my relationships with some of the players, I think that was the catalyst for some dissatisfaction.’

Adelaide won four of their first six games. A bye in Round 7 coincided with a State of Origin game on the Tuesday night. Eleven Adelaide players represented SA. ‘You can almost chart the demise from that time,’ Graham said. ‘After that we struggled with injury and form.’

After the 1993 preliminary final appearance, expectations had been high, but Adelaide finished 11th with nine wins. ‘Someone had to pay,’ Graham said. ‘I got called in and they said we’re going to change coaches.’ Adelaide officials felt he had lost the players. The club was looking east for its next coach. ‘There was this theory floating around in Adelaide that we needed to have a Victorian coach to be successful against Victorian teams,’ Graham said. ‘I was a victim of that mentality. As I say, you get what you deserve.’ Robert Shaw, a former Essendon player and Fitzroy coach, was given the job.

Embedded in football

At Sacred Heart College, Chad found football much harder than it had been at primary school. At 14, he was tall but slight. ‘All the kids were bigger, tougher and better players,’ he said. ‘I was struggling to make the Second 18, the B team.’

He felt the comparisons at Sacred Heart. Everyone expected him to be a star because of his surname. His performances left him embarrassed: ‘I wasn’t able to play footy that well. With a last name like Cornes, that was tough. I got bullied, but in the end it only makes you stronger.’

Graham, noticing Chad’s on-field difficulties, took him to a Glenelg restaurant for dinner. ‘We had a serious talk,’ Chad said.

‘Footy is obviously not going to be for you,’ Graham told him, ‘so I’d start focusing on your maths and science.’

Chad didn’t want to give up his dream. ‘I still loved it and wanted to play,’ he said. ‘But it was certain, with how I was playing and what I had to offer, that it wasn’t going to be for me.’

‘Chad had no idea, really,’ Graham said. ‘He took a long time to develop. He had football ability but it didn’t look like it was going to be elite football ability. When he was 15, he grew out of his body. When he played, he was gangly and awkward.’

Graham was determined to avoid the ugly parent syndrome. When he watched his boys play, he usually found a spot on the other side of the oval, where people couldn’t see him. Mostly he watched silently. ‘He gave me a talking-to after a few games,’ Chad said, ‘when he thought I lacked a bit of effort and wasn’t trying as hard as I could. What teenage kids need to hear.’

Graham, because of his coaching commitments, was only able to watch Kane play once a month. ‘He missed a lot,’ Kane said. ‘I would’ve loved him to have been there more.’ In Grade 6, Kane joined his brother at Sacred Heart. He was always driven to play AFL football. When teachers asked what he wanted to do, his answer, ‘I want to play footy’, brought a smile and a frown. His teachers suggested he needed a backup plan. ‘I don’t need one because I’m going to play footy,’ Kane would say. ‘I was just so determined. I didn’t need motivation.’

When the timing was right, Graham took the boys to the park on Sunday mornings to work on the basics of football. ‘He was never an overbearing parent who pushed footy on us,’ Chad said. Graham was big on footballers having clean hands and the ability to take one-grab marks and pick the ball up off the ground with one grab. ‘He used to stand about 5 metres away from Chad and me and kick footballs as hard as he could at us,’ Kane said. ‘I appreciated that. But he wasn’t pushy at all, which I also appreciated.’

Overbearing parents

Kane also felt the burden of his surname at Sacred Heart College. Although he was playing great football, he was bullied. ‘When you’re the son of the coach it’s pretty hard to hide,’ he said. ‘The older kids used to give me a fair bit of grief. That was pretty full on.’

When Chad turned 16, he put on a few kilos in a growth spurt. Suddenly he was bigger and stronger. At the start of the season, he was named at full-forward for the First 18 team and played better football than he thought he could, kicking a few goals. He put together a good month. As his confidence grew, he started believing in his ability and put more effort into training. ‘We had a really good team in Year 12,’ he said. ‘I was getting a lot of opportunities at full-forward.’

He was also getting a lot of abuse from opponents and spectators, basic taunts such as you’ll never be as good as your father. ‘Most of the supporters and parents picked on me a bit more because of the Cornes name,’ he said. ‘That drove me to prove them wrong.’ During one game, an angry father entered the field and grabbed him in the goal square. Chad had been roughing up the man’s son. ‘Dad stepped in and had a few words with him,’ Chad said. ‘It was the only time any physicality was directed at me from a supporter. I’m not sure why he thought he could do that, but Dad sorted it out.’

Avoiding incidents like this was why Graham preferred solitude while watching his boys play. ‘Chad was sledged by his opponents,’ he said. ‘They would abuse him and criticise me, and he had to learn to deal with it.’ Having coached a school team, Graham appreciated the dedication of school and junior football coaches and had dealt with overenthusiastic parents. ‘I was very mindful of the ugly parent, but there’d be some games where I’d be yelling out to Chad to get back if I thought he was in the wrong position.’ One afternoon, Chad turned around and yelled, ‘Shut up!’ Graham shut up and left the coaching to those who were appointed: ‘I’d like to think I didn’t interfere with what the coaches were doing. I don’t know whether that’s the reality, but I tried to be mindful of it.’

When Kane played for Sacred Heart, he understood the ugly parent syndrome. From across the boundary line the comments flew: You’re only in this team because of your dad. Once or twice he was upset by ugly parents, but he shrugged off the abuse.

As Chad’s Year 12 season went on, he played well at full-forward. ‘We were thinking maybe I might get an opportunity at the highest level,’ he said. Graham knew what recruiters were looking for. As he watched Chad improve, he thought his son could play AFL football if he wanted it: ‘It was never really an outcome that burned within me. I didn’t want them to get ahead of themselves. I didn’t want to get ahead of them in terms of my ambitions for them.’

Chad finished Year 12 with three clubs circling. Meetings were held with recruiters from Adelaide, West Coast and Port Adelaide. The meeting with Port Adelaide officials was uncomfortable. ‘There’s no doubt we hated Port,’ Chad said. ‘They always used to beat Glenelg in the big games. They were tough and intimidating, that’s why we hated them. They were better than Glenelg.’

In 1997 the father–son rule wasn’t written for South Australian footballers. Despite 364 games of SANFL football, Graham’s career was irrelevant under the rule. In a ridiculous anomaly that didn’t apply to Victorian clubs, Adelaide and Port Adelaide could not lay claim to a local junior star. Had Graham coached Adelaide for five years instead of four, Chad could have nominated the Crows. Instead, he was on the open market.

As the national draft neared, Chad thought he was going to West Coast at pick 12 or 13, so when Port Adelaide read out his name at pick 9, he was relieved. Father–son rule be damned. He knew a few players at Port Adelaide. He could stay home, surrounded by family and friends. ‘Despite the initial shock of it being Port Adelaide, I think Mum and Dad were pretty happy,’ he said.

The 1997 AFL draft was one of the 1990s’ best. The top 11 picks, including Simon Black, Luke Power and Adam Goodes, all played more than 100 games. Chad was surprised to be taken at number 9: ‘That was higher than we thought. I don’t think my form and what I’d done in football warranted selection at pick 9, but Alan Stewart saw something in me.’ Stewart, a legendary figure in the SANFL with Central District, had turned to recruiting for Port Adelaide and was adamant that Chad was worth picking. ‘I owe a lot to him for making John Cahill pick me,’ Chad said.

Graham was overcome by the irony: ‘You had to live here in a Glenelg jumper and a Port Adelaide jumper to understand how much we hated each other. There’s been no greater enmity between teams anywhere on the planet than between Glenelg and Port Adelaide.’

The transition

The first moment Chad walked into Alberton, club officials and supporters welcomed him. He was extremely nervous, worried about his fitness and his ability to compete against teammates who had been playing AFL football. But as pre-season training wound on, he was surprised by how well he adjusted. As Round 1 approached, he was a chance to be selected but ultimately he was overlooked. ‘After that, my form really dropped off,’ he said. ‘I went back to Glenelg and didn’t play good footy there.’

Mark ‘Choco’ Williams, a former Port Adelaide, Collingwood and Brisbane player, was assistant coach to Cahill. Graham, thought Williams, was holding onto the past: ‘There was a little bit of difficulty with Chad and Mark Williams. There’d been all sorts of drama between Mark Williams and me.’

At training, Williams thought Chad was doing enough to get by, which didn’t include extra weights or recovery sessions. ‘I wasn’t tough or physical enough at that stage,’ Chad said. ‘I was soft and skinny. It took me a while to understand what it took to make it at AFL level.’ Williams knew Chad had ability but felt he played football only one way. ‘Back then if I didn’t mark it, I didn’t have anything else,’ Chad said. Williams grew frustrated with his second efforts during games and at training: ‘I don’t think Dad and Choco got along at that stage of their lives. I think Choco was still a little bit angry and disappointed that Dad hadn’t picked him in the first Crows team.’

As the season went on, Williams devised a repeat-effort drill, calling it the ‘Cornes drill’. Chad had to complete the drill one-on-one with Williams, in front of his teammates. Williams would kick or handpass the ball away and Chad had to sprint, retrieve it and run it back. It was relentless. Chad recalls the eyes of stunned teammates as the drill went on: ‘You were absolutely stuffed at the end and couldn’t stand on your feet. I threw up a lot of times.’

Chad, after being sledged at school for being a Cornes, was copping it at training from his coach. He felt Williams was harder on him than any other player, but upon reflection, he said the Cornes drill taught him about repeat efforts, perseverance and mental toughness: ‘That drill had a big impact on me finding my feet at AFL level. It wasn’t nice but it was definitely the best thing that happened to me. If Choco hadn’t put that extra work and time into me, I’m not sure I would’ve made it.’

‘Showdown’ games between Adelaide and Port Adelaide are usually fierce affairs that don’t always reflect the clubs’ respective ladder positions. Chad was 19 on debut in the Round 6 Showdown against Adelaide, gathering three possessions in a 28-point loss from limited game time. Against the Western Bulldogs in Round 7, he had three possessions and kicked a goal. The following week against Carlton he had two possessions and kicked a goal. After finishing without a disposal against St Kilda in Round 9, he was dropped and missed the next 11 games. In his last game for the season, another Showdown, he injured his hamstring. He finished the season with six games, mainly played off the bench. ‘It wasn’t a great start to a career,’ he said, ‘but I think there was enough there to give me a bit of confidence to know I’d be okay at that level.’

Against Fremantle in Round 2 of the 2000 season, he had a breakout game, with 22 possessions and two goals. ‘I actually did some stuff that made me feel like I was comfortable at AFL level.’ He played 20 games in 2000 as a tall forward, kicking 22 goals and improving as the season went on. ‘We finished off the year really well, which gave us confidence going into 2001.’

Kane and the draft

In Year 12, Kane’s football stagnated. He’d made the All Australian under-16s team and the All Australian under-18s team and was accepted into the AIS’s AFL Academy. As part of the academy program, he spent a week with Port Adelaide and toured Ireland, playing hybrid rules. He felt he had two problems: pace and height. He’d stopped growing and was too short to play in a key position. With the draft camp about six weeks away, Graham sought help for him: ‘We had a personal trainer. Kane was worried about his leg speed. He trained and prepared so hard for the draft camp, and we hoped he’d be picked up.’ Kane did a lot of running with an athletics coach. ‘Looking back, it was the wrong kind of work,’ Kane said. ‘A lot of long runs and endurance-based stuff, when I needed a lot more on my speed and agility.’

Prior to the 2000 national draft, Adelaide and Hawthorn had shown interest in Kane. Port Adelaide officials, despite having Chad on their list, didn’t arrange a meeting. At the draft camp, most recruiters thought Kane would be a first- or second-round pick. Williams, in a brief chat, said he wasn’t taking Kane with Port Adelaide’s first selection at pick 12, but if he slipped through to the second round, Williams would think about it. ‘He wasn’t committed at all,’ Kane said.

After a series of interviews and physical tests, Kane prepared for the 20-metre sprint, one of the most anticipated events at the draft camp. Every club wants to see speed. ‘I was the second slowest out of about 100 kids over 20 metres,’ Kane said. ‘I thought that might cost me a spot on an AFL list.’

Port Adelaide didn’t pick Kane with their first selection. Williams was true to his word. With Hawthorn hovering in the second round, Alan Stewart argued with Williams – Stewart wanted Kane but Williams wasn’t sure. Stewart got his way and Port selected Kane with pick 20. ‘I had a little bit going against me – speed and height,’ Kane said. ‘Luckily, Alan Stewart convinced Mark Williams that I was going to be a good player.’

Kane had grown up hating Port Adelaide and all the club represented, but, ‘When Port came into the AFL the hatred dissipated a little bit, and by the time Chad got drafted to Port, they were our team.’ When he fronted for his first pre-season training session, Chad was already on the ground. He’d been at Port Adelaide for four years and knew what Kane was in for. He kept an eye out, but wasn’t the protective older brother. ‘I think we got closer as time went on,’ Kane said. ‘I felt like I settled in pretty well and was immersed in training and hard work.’

Williams was a hard coach, but Kane wasn’t singled out like Chad had been. In his debut season, he was determined to make a career out of football. Overlooked for the early rounds, he kept asking Williams for feedback: ‘I was annoying. I pestered him, asking how far away I was.’ Williams pulled him into line, saying, ‘Know your place, bide your time and earn the respect.’

In 2001, Chad was playing as a third tall in the forward line, finding the football and the goals. ‘It was great feeling comfortable at AFL level,’ Chad said. There was a hiccup in Round 10 and Kane was involved. Pestering Williams finally worked and Kane made his debut. In a big game, second-placed Port Adelaide took on third-placed Hawthorn at the MCG. Kane started on the bench. Chad, having a difficult game, was dragged in the first quarter and Kane was mortified when he ran onto the ground to replace his brother. Kane finished the game with nine possessions and Port Adelaide won by 43 points. His family had come across from Adelaide to watch him play. ‘I was happy with what I did,’ Kane said.

Port Adelaide finished third in 2001, behind Brisbane and Essendon. Chad didn’t miss a game and kicked 21 goals, while Kane played seven games and was left out of the team for the finals. Making the finals was a great achievement, but Port weren’t battle-hardened. Against Brisbane in the qualifying final, they could manage only one goal in the second half and eventually lost by 32 points. At home in the semifinal, they led Hawthorn by 17 points at three-quarter time and lost by three points. ‘That game started off everyone calling us “chokers” in finals, which continued until 2004,’ Chad said. ‘It took a while for us to break that tag.’

In 2002, Port Adelaide won 18 games and finished on top. Armed with the double chance, they lost the qualifying final at home to Collingwood, rebounded against Essendon, then lost the preliminary final to Brisbane by 56 points. The 2003 season was a mirror of this. They won 18 games and finished on top. At home, they lost the qualifying final to Sydney before defeating Essendon in the semifinal. Collingwood won the preliminary final by 44 points, and the chokers tag endured. ‘I’ve never really put my finger on what it was,’ Chad said. ‘A lot of our good players didn’t play well in the big moments. The game plan was fine.’

At the end of the season, Williams had a chat with Chad, detailing his plans. After 98 games in the forward line, Chad would be moving to defence. During the pre-season, Dean Bailey, an assistant coach, spent a lot of time with him on defensive tactics. ‘I was nervous trying a completely different position,’ Chad said. He needn’t have worried – the 2004 season was his best. He was surrounded by a bunch of solid defenders. ‘That allowed me to play the way I played,’ he said. ‘Sometimes I didn’t have an opponent. I was looser on my guy because I knew the five guys around me were going to do their job. I’m really thankful to them for allowing me to play the way I did that year.’

Kane didn’t miss a game for the season. At 183 cm tall and 81 kg, he played a different game from his brother, a nullifying role. He racked up 499 possessions for the year. Chad played attacking football from defence, and finished the season with 498 possessions. His transition from attack to defence and Kane’s dogged work in the middle helped Port Adelaide finish on top for the third consecutive year. ‘It was playing out of fear,’ Kane said. ‘We were called the chokers. Mark Williams was under some pretty fierce pressure.’

Allan Scott, one of Port Adelaide’s financial backers, publicly criticised Williams’ game plan because it kept failing in the finals. In the first qualifying final, Port defeated Geelong by 55 points at Football Park. ‘We were hoping to get the monkey off our back,’ Kane said. ‘When we won that first final, got the week off and a home preliminary final, everyone was relieved.’

The preliminary final against St Kilda was an intense game. Less than a goal separated the teams for most of the night. When the final siren went, Port had won by six points. ‘Making the Grand Final for most of the guys was more a relief than a thrill,’ Kane said. Their opponents, Brisbane, were gunning for their fourth consecutive premiership.

Grand Final Day

On the Friday, Kane’s phone rang. The voice of football, Bruce McAvaney, was on the line. McAvaney showed his South Australian loyalty by offering some advice: ‘On Grand Final Day the ball bounces a little bit differently on the MCG grass. It tends to hold up a bit more than on some other grounds.’

‘It was nice of Bruce, who has obviously called a few Grand Finals and knows the ins and outs of the big stage,’ Kane said. ‘That was great.’

Graham was staying in the same hotel as his boys. Typical of his low-key approach, he slunk into the hotel without them knowing. When Port Adelaide’s players came back from a light run in the morning, he was sprung by Chad in a hallway. ‘I had a nice moment with him pre-game,’ Chad said.

‘Treat it like any other game,’ Graham told him. ‘Try to get an early possession. Get yourself settled. Don’t build it up too much and enjoy the day.’ After the chat, Graham went on his way. He didn’t see Kane until Port’s players were preparing to leave for the MCG. ‘I didn’t know he was in the same hotel,’ Kane said.

After a tight first half, Port broke the Grand Final open late in the third quarter. The final margin, 40 points, eliminated the chokers tag. Chad finished with 13 possessions; his opponent, Jonathan Brown, also finished with 13 possessions and didn’t kick a goal. Kane gathered 19 possessions. Moments after the siren, Graham walked onto the MCG and stood with his boys during the premiership celebrations. At the post-game function, the family enjoyed themselves. ‘Dad said publicly that it was his favourite day in football,’ Chad said. ‘Considering what he’d been able to achieve in footy, for him to hold a Port Adelaide premiership in such high regard was a good thing.’

Chad and Kane were established players who had endured the disappointments of the previous two seasons. ‘They deserved a flag and they won it,’ Graham said. ‘We took great pride and enjoyment out of it. But I had to be a little bit subdued. I couldn’t go over the top, because it was Port Adelaide.’

After the game, McAvaney was on the phone again, one of the first people to call Kane and congratulate him on the win.

The Cornes drill worked

Chad was named at centre half-back in the 2004 All-Australian team. In defence, he had improved his game. At 24, he stood 192 cm tall and weighed 95 kg. He started antagonising his opponents and the crowd. ‘That goes back to the way Choco trained me,’ he said, ‘getting that bit of aggression and the Port Adelaide attitude into me when I was young.’

Port, in that era, had a tough team. Chad learned from Matty Primus, Byron Pickett, Damien Hardwick and Dean Brogan. Josh Francou also played a hard game. ‘We had a really tough team back then and we liked getting under the opposition’s skin,’ Chad said. ‘We liked getting under the opposition supporters’ skin as well.’ He liked to excite the crowd and rouse his teammates. It helped him lift. ‘When you put yourself out there like that, you have to back it up. It made me back it up in big moments.’

Graham called his boys after each game to say hello and ask how they were feeling. ‘After I played poorly he never got into me,’ Chad said, ‘just gave me bits and pieces of advice. He was never one to talk too much about footy. I think he knew that I didn’t want to talk footy that much.’

Port Adelaide finished eighth in 2005 and won the elimination final against North Melbourne by 87 points. Their form didn’t extend to the semifinal, which they lost to Adelaide by 87 points. Kane was named in the All Australian side on interchange. In 2006, Port finished 12th with eight wins. The playing list had changed since the premiership. Williams wanted the current list to change. Again, he turned to Chad.

Utility ability

In January 2007, before a pre-season training session, Kane sat next to Chad in the clubrooms. Kane had taken a long look at the list. Young players like Robbie Gray, Travis Boak and Justin Westhoff were untested. Daniel Motlop, Tom Logan and David Rodan were recent additions from other clubs. ‘This could be a long year for us,’ Kane said. Chad shrugged. As pre-season training went on, the Cornes brothers were in agreement. ‘We didn’t have any expectations to make the finals that year,’ Kane said.

Phillip Walsh, Port Adelaide’s assistant coach, wanted a big-bodied midfielder. Chad played a handful of games in the middle in 2005 and 2006, but in the 2007 pre-season he learned another role: permanent midfielder. ‘A bit of licence to do what I wanted,’ he said. ‘It was a good role to have.’ Roaming the midfield, on a wing or slipping into defence or attack, he had 643 disposals for the season, leading the competition in kicks with 427. He also kicked 18 goals, including six against Melbourne in Round 17. ‘Kane probably gave me half of those possessions,’ he said. ‘It helps when you’ve got your little brother looking after you.’

A story in the Adelaide Advertiser claimed Kane had been admonished by Williams for ignoring players in better position to get the ball to his brother. ‘We did connect a fair bit,’ Kane said. ‘I had a good sense of where he was on the ground and did go out of my way to try to get the footy into his hands.’

Port Adelaide exceeded expectations. In Round 21 they defeated Geelong at Kardinia Park by five points to seal second place on the ladder. When they ran out to play West Coast in the qualifying final, the chokers tag almost re-emerged before they scraped home by three points. An 87-point win over North Melbourne in the preliminary final put them into the Grand Final. Geelong were waiting. ‘I loved that year,’ Chad said. ‘Probably the most enjoyable year of footy I had.’

The Grand Final was remarkable for the margin – Geelong won by 119 points. Chad finished with 32 possessions and a goal, and Kane had 37 possessions. The Cornes brothers were Port’s best. ‘Embarrassment is the word that sums it up,’ Chad said. ‘We had a lot of guys who couldn’t have played worse. It was embarrassing walking off the field and embarrassing coming back to the club the next day. It’s still to be spoken about.’

Kane said the players were too confident before the game and the memory of beating Geelong at Kardinia Park was still fresh. They stayed in the contest until Geelong kicked a couple of late goals in the first quarter, and then the rest of the game was a thrashing. ‘It was one of the most enjoyable years I’ve ever had,’ Kane said. ‘To get there was amazing. I think that gets lost in the result on Grand Final Day. It was such a great year, but that last day was full of embarrassment.’

The 119-point loss is the biggest in Grand Final history. For Chad, reminders are everywhere: ‘Giving the Crows fans the opportunity to talk about that is something I’ll always have to deal with.’

At the end of the season, Kane won his first John Cahill Medal as Port Adelaide’s best and fairest. He and Chad made the All Australian side, brothers on opposite wings. ‘Individually it was my best year,’ Kane said. ‘I had the most possessions in the competition. I won the best and fairest. Chad should’ve won it. For whatever reason he didn’t get the recognition he deserved from the coaches.’ Chad started a trend for big-bodied midfielders. ‘It was as good an individual season as anyone’s ever had for Port Adelaide,’ Kane said. ‘Chad was absolutely dominant. It was a thrill to see him at his best.’

In 2008, humiliation hung low over Port Adelaide. The players were psychologically damaged and Williams couldn’t lift them. They won just seven games for the year. ‘The Grand Final was an absolute train wreck,’ Kane said. ‘It set the club back five or six years with the damage it did.’ At 28, Chad had played 185 games. He started the 2008 season in good form but broke a finger in Round 6 against St Kilda. When he came back, he suffered knee and shoulder injuries. ‘It was a bit of a struggle from then on,’ he said.

Through the damage, Kane kept on tagging, getting the ball and keeping his opponent quiet. He won the John Cahill Medal again in 2008 and 2010. Where Chad played with open aggression, Kane played with a fierce intensity, grinding his opponents down and getting plenty of the ball. ‘Not a lot of players put their hand up for that tagging role,’ he said. ‘It was something I loved and embraced.’ As he warmed down after a game, he looked to the next round, wondering who he would play on. It was a weekly challenge. ‘I hated getting beaten. Often the attacking players aren’t defensively minded. It gave me an opportunity to explore the attacking side of my game.’ Kane was unique. He could hold his opponent to 15 possessions and get 30 of his own. ‘It’s something I still miss to this day,’ he said. ‘Rarely do we see those one-on-one battles anymore, which is a shame.’

At the end of the 2010 season, Williams, after 12 years as coach, wasn’t offered another contract and Matthew Primus, who had been a colossal ruckman for Port Adelaide before knee injuries wrecked his career, was appointed. Chad, at 31, wasn’t sure of his place in the side. ‘My worst year of football was 2010, without a doubt,’ he said. ‘I played some horrible games.’ Under Primus, he got through his 13th pre-season.

Kane was in for a change – Primus moved him from the middle to half-back. ‘He wanted to give some guys an opportunity, which was fair enough,’ Kane said. ‘But my form across half-back was poor.’ He played 17 games in 2011. In 13 of those, he gathered 20 or more possessions across half-back. But he was dropped in rounds 4 and 5: ‘I had to go back to play for Glenelg, which was tough. Chad was entering his last season with Port Adelaide. It was a tough year.’

Chad played nine games. At 32, he felt ready to retire. After the season, Primus wasn’t offering him another contract and also told Kane he was up for trade. ‘It was a big shock to me,’ Kane said. ‘I was 28 and facing my career ending.’ Primus had complications, as Kane had two years to run on his contract. Port Adelaide’s new CEO Keith Thomas didn’t want to lose him. ‘Thomas had a bit more faith in me than Primus did,’ Kane said.

The AFL’s newest club, Greater Western Sydney, had faith in Chad too. Kevin Sheedy needed experience to help his young list. Chad accepted a three-year deal, to play then transition into coaching.

In 2012, Port Adelaide won five games, leading to Primus being sacked. Kane won his fourth John Cahill Medal. ‘My form held up okay,’ he said. In Sydney, Chad played 16 games with GWS, a cool veteran in defence, before retiring as a player and becoming an assistant coach.

Ken Hinkley, a mercurial player with Fitzroy and Geelong, was given the task of rebuilding Port Adelaide. When Hinkley fronted for pre-season training, he lifted the mood. ‘I had my most fun playing under Ken Hinkley,’ Kane said. Hinkley was honest and fair. He developed an attacking game plan and gave his players the freedom to play it. In his first year, Port finished seventh and knocked Collingwood out of the finals with a 24-point elimination final win. A 16-point defeat in the qualifying final against Geelong gave them hope for 2014.

Finishing sixth in 2014 put Port into an elimination final against Richmond, and Port’s eight goals to one in the first quarter killed the game. In Perth, they came from behind at half-time to defeat Fremantle by 22 points in the semifinal. They attacked Hawthorn hard in the preliminary final, but inaccurate kicking led to a three-point loss. ‘I love Ken’s philosophies around footy,’ Kane said. ‘I loved that he backed me in as a player and wanted to extend my career when so many coaches looked to end it. To get back to finals again and be a kick away from a Grand Final in 2014 was treasured stuff. I owe that to Ken Hinkley.’

Kane survived four more years after Primus wanted to trade him. He said the shock of being put up for trade was a blessing: ‘Every game that I got I relished and thought it could be my last.’ At the end of the 2014 season, he’d played 293 games. He sat down with Hinkley and asked for one more season. ‘Ken was adamant that he wanted me to get to 300,’ Kane said. ‘I certainly wanted to do that as well.’

He pushed himself through his 15th pre-season, but seven rounds in, Port were struggling. It was always going to be Kane’s last year of football – Hinkley was prioritising young players. Before the Round 8 clash against Richmond at Football Park, Kane decided to retire: ‘I was mentally done and the side was struggling. The timing was right.’ He played his 300th game with friends and family in the crowd. Richmond put a dagger in Port’s season with a 33-point win. The crowd cheered Kane as he exited football for the last time.

On Monday, the media-led criticism started. ‘It’s not often someone puts their hand up and retires midway through the season,’ Kane said. ‘I expected it.’ He was accused of abandoning his teammates. As the criticism washed over him, he thought it was fair: ‘Not in terms of going out after my 300th, but in the way I left. If I had my time again I would’ve certainly waited until the end of the season.’

The Cornes legacy

Chad and Kane had an enviable upbringing in football. They flew interstate with their father to watch Adelaide play. At every home game, they kicked a football with players and talked to trainers and assistant coaches. Each training session, each game, they learned from their environment. Immersion in a football club has an impact, no matter what level. The boys went on an end-of-season footy trip with Adelaide to America. ‘I tried to make it special for them,’ Graham said.

In 1995 and 1996, Graham struggled to watch Adelaide when they lost in Victoria under Robert Shaw. ‘They’d go to Melbourne and get smashed like I was criticised for when I was coaching,’ he said. When Malcolm Blight coached Adelaide to back-to-back premierships in 1997 and 1998, Graham was in the crowd watching. He had moved on from the disappointment. ‘I wanted to be able to walk into the club and be proud, like I walk into Glenelg,’ he said. ‘It’s great to walk into Glenelg. I wanted to go back to the Adelaide Football Club and mix with the people and not feel bitter.’

In 2013, Graham received life membership of the club, in recognition of his hard work through four years as inaugural coach. ‘I’m very grateful to them,’ he said. Since the mid-1990s, he has worked in the media across television, radio and print. He is aware of the limitations of his role: ‘You’re just commentating on other people’s strengths or weaknesses. You’ve got to be very much aware of that.’

He is too humble to rate his impact on football. His career, as a player and coach, ranks with the greats. ‘I don’t think of it like that,’ he said. ‘I was a bit lucky. There’s nothing like playing. It’s the greatest time of your life. It’s the greatest game. You just couldn’t wait for Saturday.’

The Cornes family legacy spans six decades of football. Graham started something that endures. He is one of the greats and remains a South Australian icon. Not bad for a Victorian.

Graham Cornes set crowds alight with his pack marking through 18 seasons of football.

Graham’s record as South Australia’s coach was remarkable with six State of Origin wins against Victoria. (Getty Images)

Chad and Kane: brothers back to back in the eighties.

Chad and Kane: brothers side by side after the 2004 premiership. (GSP Images/AFL Media)