From scrapheap to sweet success for Kane Cornes Kane Cornes has been sensational since being dropped twice in 2011. KANE Cornes is the great survivor. Two years ago, at age 28, he appeared to be headed for the football scrapheap. Like his older brother, Chad, Kane had fallen out of favour with then Port Adelaide coach Matthew Primus. With Primus determined to overhaul the Power playing list, Cornes - at that stage a three-time club champion - was dramatically dropped from the side. The ironman's club record streak of 174 consecutive games was ended not by injury but by a coach's call. While in the first year of a three-year contract, Cornes' AFL future appeared anything but safe. Port was in freefall - it won only three games for the year - and Cornes was running around in the SANFL with Glenelg. "It was a difficult time," said Cornes of the uncertainty that surrounded his place in the side and at the club. Kane Cornes after winning Port Adelaide's John Cahill Medal as best-and-fairest player last year. There was certainly some ups and downs that year but it was a little bit more to it than just a form slump. There was a bit going on at the footy club and it was a pretty dark year. The new coach had a direction he wanted to go with and some players suffered through that. There's no doubt it was a mental challenge for me but I was contracted to the footy club and still thought I could play the game. I know people still want to talk about it, which is disappointing for me because I've been pretty consistent over 13 years, but I don't tend to look back on it too much. At some stage I might but I'm just happy with the way things are now. Me and Matty sorted that out last year, I played every game and won the best and fairest. What it taught me was that going through some tough periods just makes the good times better. Right now I feel very fortunate to have joined a club which was a powerhouse, then went through a period when it couldn't win a game, and to now come out the other side and be on the way back up again. Kane and Chad Cornes as youngsters. Picture supplied. While the older brother he admires so much was forced into retirement after round 20 in 2011, only to join GWS the following season, Kane survived. He bounced back from two stints in the SANFL - rounds four and five and rounds 22 and 23 - to win his club record-equalling fourth John Cahill Medal last year. This year, at 30, he has been one of Port's best players in its record start to the season. In beating Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium last week, the Power won its opening four games in a season for the first time. Tomorrow night, against West Coast, Cornes will become just the second man to play 250 AFL games for Port, joining club legend Warren Tredrea. Barring injury, Cornes will pass Tredrea's club record of 255 games in round 12, ironically against Chad's side, the Giants. Brothers in arms: Kane and Chad Cornes celebrate the 2004 premiership. He said bouncing back from the tough times of two years ago had only made his 250-game milestone sweeter. "I feel pretty blessed," Cornes said. To play 250 games for this great club has been an amazing journey and one I'm pretty proud of. Cornes takes great satisfaction from beating the odds. He has been doing it all of his football life. As a teenager, many AFL scouts thought he was too slow and not athletically-gifted enough to make it. But they didn't count on his extraordinary work ethic. I'm not super quick and I'm not super skilled," he admitted. I'm probably one of the slowest players at the club. I was really slow at the draft camp and I'm not the tallest or strongest player. But I've always been able to run long distances, I thank mum (Pam) for that, and I guess I've always had an ability to work hard. Because I wasn't blessed with some natural talents other players had I've always been pretty driven to work hard. Throughout every pre-season I looked to improve. If it wasn't for the hard work, certainly my physical ability wouldn't have allowed me to play 250, so I guess that has been the big thing for me. Cornes' consistency has been remarkable. He has finished in the top three of the Power's club champion award an incredible eight times in the past nine years. A 2004 premiership player, has has also been Port's top disposal winner in the past eight seasons and has averaged 20 or more disposals in each of the past 10 years. This year he is averaging a career-high 31 disposals. Significantly, he is enjoying the journey far more than when he burst onto the scene as an intense young man who once famously knocked on former coach Mark Williams' door at home demanding to know why he hadn't been selected for his debut. Cornes said some home truths told to him by Chad in 2003 and the trauma of his first son's heart problems - Eddy was born in 2006 with heart defects - had taught him to enjoy the ride. "I probably couldn't continue doing what I was doing," Cornes said of his early obsession with football. When I came in to the footy club I was just so intense and out to prove to myself that I could play and I was probably a bit over the top and too much 'footy, footy, footy'. Chad told me to lighten up a bit and with the little one (Eddy) going through what he went through it opened my eyes up to what is really important. I've learnt to just enjoy my football. It doesn't last forever and so every time I go out there I just want to enjoy it and lap it up.