Author(s): Kane Cornes

Sport

Premiership player. Four-time club champion. Two-time all-Australian. 300-game veteran of the AFL. Kane Cornes' story is the story of the modern Port Adelaide Football Club. It is a story of triumph, tragedy and renewal. It is an intensely personal and honest story of a young man born into football royalty, who as the son of Glenelg and Crows legend Graham Cornes was hard-wired to detest the club he would come to adore. It's a story of courage off the field, as Kane and his wife Lucy fight for the survival of their critically ill son Eddie, the eldest of their three boys, with Kane sleeping on hospital floors the night before games, but somehow playing his best season to date. Kane reveals full details of how his fractured relationship with replacement coach Matt Primus almost resulted in his own sacking, as the club teetered on the brink of financial collapse. It's the story of a man who says he has no special gift for football, but got where he is through intensity and effort, defying the setbacks of being dropped, played out of position, and even the ridicule of fans and pundits who publicly called for his sacking. Kane also lifts the lid on his greatest rivalries, both sporting and personal - the challenge of playing against some of the greatest players in the game, from Ben Cousins to Simon Black and he takes you inside the change rooms for Mark Williams' last game on the very day he was sacked, the last words Matt Primus said after Port's humiliating loss to GWS led to his own sacking, and the inside story of how Ken Hinkley rebuilt the team from nothing in 2012 to make it an irresistible finals force and genuine flag contender in 2015, Kane's final season in the AFL.