“Pathetic performance”: Cornes calls out Power resilience after finals humiliation

Kane Cornes has given his immediate reaction to Port Adelaide’s horrendous Qualifying Final loss to Geelong.

The Power were thumped to the tune of 84 points on their home deck by a Geelong side that lost Tom Stewart before the first bounce.

The Cats kicked 11 goals to one after half time in what was a comprehensive smashing.

“I was stunned last night watching that,” Cornes told SEN Breakfast.

“The midfield was absolutely smashed. I look at the first centre bounce clearance. Zak Butters wins it, handballs to Willem Drew who just fumbles the footy for no reason.

“Geelong then goes inside 50 and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher drops an easy uncontested intercept mark. Port then gets the ball and turns it over with a 15-metre kick – and I was thinking ‘what the hell is going on here? There’s three mistakes in a minute’.

“There was something completely off about the group and it was completely different to the last nine weeks.”

The Power have now lost their last four finals and Cornes believes the playing group, from the stars to the role players, lack resilience when things get tough.

“I think they lack resilience,” Cornes said.

“I think they lack any little bit of resilience when things get a little bit tough. You can’t give up in a final like that.

“There was many, many times last night where Port Adelaide players last night made a decision to give up. The amount of long balls where the ball hits the deck – it becomes a simple measure of who wins that ball at ground level after it comes off hands and hits the ground. I reckon Geelong won 80 per cent of them.

“They won it on the inside and got it to the outside and spread and ran away from Port Adelaide.

“You look at it and go, there’s probably 10 Port Adelaide players who aren’t up to it last night and were found out from Jase Burgoyne to Lachie Jones to Esava Ratugolea to Charlie Dixon to Jed McEntee to Francis Evans, the list goes on.

“So, you had that from your bottom 10, but you also had it from your top three or four. You can’t have that from Connor Rozee last night. You’re the captain of the footy club. He’s had a disappointing year, Rozee.

“Ollie Wines had been in good form, what was that from Ollie Wines? What was that from Willem Drew? What was that from Jordon Sweet? He dominated hit-outs, but there was no connection at all with the mids.

“To answer your question, they lack resilience this group and we’ve seen it too often. When things get hard, they aren’t prepared to dig in and get momentum back.

“Some of the efforts were not acceptable. The last four finals have been a similar story.

“It was nothing short of a pathetic performance.”

Port Adelaide will have to regroup and ready themselves to face the winner of Friday night’s clash between the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn at the Adelaide Oval.