Chad Cornes

Chad Cornes
Personal information
Full name	Chad Studley Cornes
Nickname(s)	'The Chad'
Date of birth	(1979-11-12) 12 November 1979
Place of birth	Adelaide, South Australia
Original team(s)	Glenelg (SANFL)
Draft	#9, 1997 National Draft, Port Adelaide
Height/Weight	192 cm / 93 kg
Position(s)	Utility
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1999–2011 2012 Total	Port Adelaide Greater Western Sydney	239 (175) 016 00(4) 255 (179)
International team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
2002	Australia	2
Coaching career
Years	Club	Games (W–L–D)
2016-	Port Adelaide (SANFL)	0 (0-0-0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2013 season.

Chad Studley Cornes (born 12 November 1979) is a retired Australian rules footballer, who played for the Port Adelaide Football Club and Greater Western Sydney Giants in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was a member of the Port Adelaide side which won the premiership in 2004. On 3 July 2013 Cornes called it a day retiring from AFL football for good because of a troublesome knee. Cornes is currently serving as the SANFL coach of Port Adelaide.

Playing career

Port Adelaide career (1999–2011)

Early career (1999–2003)

Cornes began his AFL career as a key-forward and after playing only 6 games in 1999, was a regular in the Power forward line in 2000, booting 22 goals. Between 2000 and 2003 Cornes and Tredrea formed one of the best forward partnerships in the AFL, with Chad playing up the ground demonstrating his great contested marking ability. Despite being one of the best forwards in the game, Cornes was moved into defence at the start of the 2004 season.

Career change (2004–2005)

In 2004, Cornes was moved to centre-half back. The new position worked wonders as Cornes began to single-handedly dominate games, earning himself his first All-Australian award, and finishing third in the Brownlow medal. The move to centre-half back was a key reason for Port Adelaide's dominance, which culminated in their first Premiership in 2004, defeating the Brisbane Lions by 40 points. He had a key defensive role on Brisbane Lions' forward Jonathan Brown during the Grand Final, restricting him to just one behind for the match.

After Port Adelaide's dominance in 2004, Cornes was again used as a key defender to great effect. However, Port Adelaide was unable to repeat its finals' glory of 2004, being eliminated by cross town rivals Adelaide in the first semi-final.

Leadership (2006–2007)

The 2006 was a disappointing one for Port Adelaide, and one which frustrated Cornes in particular. The season never really took off, and with Cornes now being a senior player, he was moved into the midfield to help the younger players. This move paid off as he dominated matches, which was a huge positive for the Power in an otherwise disappointing campaign. Cornes won the Showdown Medal in round 21.

In 2007, Cornes was a key midfielder and has a largely impressive season. Cornes finished the 2007 season with 643 disposals, and led the competition in kicks, and went into the Brownlow medal count as one of the favourites. The great form of Cornes in midfield was crucial to the side making the AFL Grand Final, which was a huge surprise to most, including Cornes. Despite not expecting to have a good season, when they did make the Grand Final the belief appeared to be strong but they were unable to win their second flag, going down to Geelong in the most one-sided Grand Final in history.

Injuries (2008–2010)

Port looked to bounce back from their Grand Final humiliation of the previous year when they took on Geelong in the opening round of 2008. Despite being close throughout the match, they were unable to win and that was the start of a four-game losing streak for the Power. Cornes suffered a broken finger in Round 6 against the Saints but returned just three weeks later despite the nature of the break being very severe. After 2 years with on and off form, Cornes broke his finger again in mid-2010.

End of Port Adelaide career (2011)

Despite having to stay on the sidelines for the rest of the year, he played on in 2011. In August 2011 he announced that he would be retiring from the AFL after the following week's match against Collingwood

Greater Western Sydney career (2012–2013)

Cornes came out of retirement, and was traded to the Giants during the 2011 October Trade Week. He was a playing assistant coach. On 3 July 2013 Cornes retired from AFL football.

Coaching career

Greater Western Sydney (2013–2015)

Post retirement, Chad Cornes remained with GWS in a full-time coaching role with their backlines, a position he held from 2013 to 2015.

Port Adelaide

On 21 September 2015, Cornes was announced as the SANFL coach of the Port Adelaide Football Club.

Family

In addition to his brother Kane Cornes, his father, Graham Cornes, is also a former VFL/SANFL footballer, playing 317 games for Glenelg with a career spanning from 1967 to 1982. Graham also coached various AFL/SANFL teams between 1983 and 1994. His stepmother Nicole Cornes was a 2007 Labour candidate. He has three younger half-sisters paternally.

Playing statistics

†	Denotes seasons in which Cornes won an AFL Premiership

Season	Team	#	Games	D	K	H	M	T	H/O	G	B	D	K	H	M	T	H/O	G	B
			Totals									Averages (per game)
1999	Port Adelaide	35	6	20	19	1	10	3	1	5	4	3.3	3.2	0.2	1.7	0.5	0.2	0.8	0.7
2000	Port Adelaide	35	21	237	156	81	81	25	30	22	18	11.3	7.4	3.9	3.9	1.2	1.4	1.0	0.9
2001	Port Adelaide	35	24	313	218	95	126	23	35	21	26	13.0	9.1	4.0	5.3	1.0	1.5	0.9	1.1
2002	Port Adelaide	35	25	405	297	108	171	26	27	29	19	16.2	11.9	4.3	6.8	1.0	1.1	1.2	0.8
2003	Port Adelaide	35	22	344	258	86	172	46	20	29	30	15.6	11.7	3.9	7.8	2.1	0.9	1.3	1.4
2004†	Port Adelaide	35	24	498	359	139	188	37	23	4	7	20.8	15.0	5.8	7.8	1.5	1.0	0.2	0.3
2005	Port Adelaide	35	19	419	310	109	165	42	23	8	7	22.1	16.3	5.7	8.7	2.2	1.2	0.4	0.4
2006	Port Adelaide	35	19	412	294	118	140	31	17	13	14	21.7	15.5	6.2	7.4	1.6	0.9	0.7	0.7
2007	Port Adelaide	35	25	643	427	216	174	56	27	18	12	25.7	17.1	8.6	7.0	2.2	1.1	0.7	0.5
2008	Port Adelaide	35	13	278	158	120	84	36	6	5	9	21.4	12.2	9.2	6.5	2.8	0.5	0.4	0.7
2009	Port Adelaide	35	18	385	219	166	127	47	10	7	7	21.4	12.2	9.2	7.1	2.6	0.6	0.4	0.4
2010	Port Adelaide	35	14	239	130	109	58	30	2	4	0	17.1	9.3	7.8	4.1	2.1	0.1	0.3	0.0
2011	Port Adelaide	35	9	126	80	46	47	19	7	10	9	14.0	8.9	5.1	5.2	2.1	0.8	1.1	1.0
2012	GWS	11	16	317	181	136	103	36	5	4	3	19.8	11.3	8.5	6.4	2.3	0.3	0.3	0.2
Career			255	4636	3106	1530	1646	457	233	179	165	18.2	12.2	6.0	6.5	1.8	0.9	0.7	0.6

Honours and achievements

Brownlow Medal votes
Season	Votes
1999	0
2000	1
2001	0
2002	3
2003	3
2004	22
2005	0
2006	4
2007	12
2008	0
2009	3
2010	0
2011	0
2012	2
Total	50
Key:
Green / Bold = Won

Team

• AFL Premiership (Port Adelaide): 2004
• AFL McClelland Trophy (Port Adelaide): 2002, 2003, 2004
• AFL Pre Season Cup (Port Adelaide): 2001, 2002

Individual

• 3rd Brownlow Medal 2004
• All-Australian: 2004, 2007
• AFL Norwich Rising Star Nomination: 2000
• Port Adelaide F.C. Vice Captain: 2006–2008
• Port Adelaide F.C. Most Improved Player: 2002
• Port Adelaide F.C. Best Finals Player: 2005
• West End Showdown Medal XXI: 2006
• Peter Badcoe VC Medal 2007 round 5

External links

• Chad Cornes's profile on the official website of the Greater Western Sydney Giants
• Chad Cornes's statistics from AFL Tables
• Chad Cornes's profile from AustralianFootball.com