Port Adelaide legend dumped as assistant coach
A Port Adelaide premiership player turned AFL coach will not have his contract renewed, the club has revealed.
Port Adelaide Football Club has announced that assistant coach and former player Chad Cornes will not be part of the club’s coaching group in 2026.
The news is being labelled as Josh Carr’s first big move as he prepares to take over as coach from Ken Hinkley next season.
“Chad has been an outstanding servant of our club as a premiership player, as a coach within our program since returning at the end of 2015 and of course as a member of our Hall of Fame,” said Port Adelaide general manager of football Chris Davies.
“Given his tenure at the club we wanted to provide Chad with clarity as possible so he has maximum time to consider his future.”
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Cornes is the son of former Glenelg premiership coach and inaugural Adelaide Crows coach Graham Cornes.
He originally joined Port Adelaide for the 1998 season from the SANFL’s Glenelg Football Club and was part of the 2004 AFL Grand Final premiership team alongside his brother, Kane.
He twice won All-Australian and played 239 games for Port Adelaide from 1998-2011.
Cornes returned to football as an assistant at the GWS Giants in 2012 before retiring as a professional athlete in 2013.
Since then, Cornes has been an assistant and defence coach at GWS Giants and a SANFL coach, a forward development coach, a defence coach and most recently, a forwards coach at Port Adelaide.
