Kane Cornes says his AFL debut back in 2001 was memorable for a number of reasons.
Cornes picked up nine possessions for Port Adelaide against Hawthorn at the MCG in round 10 of that year as the Mark Williams-coached Power won impressively by 43 points.
While it may have been a solid return for Cornes in his first outing, the day didn’t quite go to plan for his older brother Chad, who was in his third season, and struggled to have any sort of impact against the Hawks.
“It was memorable in a way, but it was a bit bittersweet,” he said on SEN SA Breakfast.
“I started on the bench and towards the back-end of the first quarter, Chad was having the worst game he’s ever played, even by his own admission.
“He was that low on confidence, he went for just a straight-up mark and the ball went straight through his hands and smacked him in the head.
“Moments after that, ‘Choco’ sent the runner out and said, ‘Get Chad off, get Kane on’.
“So I’ve come onto the ground for my fist run of AFL football, replacing my brother, because Chad had an absolute stinker of a game.
“We won and we were going pretty well at this stage, it was first versus second, and we’d just beaten the first-ranked side at the MCG.
“I played OK, family was there, I was kind of happy and relieved to get the first game out of the way, but Chad did not say a word. He sat by himself on the bus, sat by himself on the plane. There was this moment that you were sort of happy you played your first game and had a win but I felt sympathy for for Chad who had a shocker.
“That was the memory of my first game.”
Cornes also recalled a piece of ‘special’ commentary from Bruce McAvaney which he still cherishes.
“If I can be self-indulgent for a second, one of the other memorable things out of it was my first touch,” Cornes added.
“I picked it up in the forward pocket at the MCG and snapped it over my body. It looked like it was going through for a goal but it didn’t and in the commentary, because I did watch it back, Bruce McAvaney said, ‘Gee, there’s Kane Cornes for his first game and dare I say it, there’s something speeecccial about this kid’.
“So I got a ‘special’ out of Bruce in my first game which I was pretty thrilled about.”
Cornes would go on to play 300 games for Port (a club record), while winning four best and fairest awards, two All-Australian blazers and the 2004 premiership.