The teams have not met since round one last season when Port Adelaide ruckman Dean Brogan was suspended for bumping former Bomber Andrew Lovett, as he walked to the quarter-time huddle.
Lovett, who was infamously traded to St Kilda in the offseason, has since moved on but Knights’ comments on Tuesday suggested that he hasn’t.
He declared there to be “no love lost” between the two teams, but Cornes said he wasn’t aware of any lingering animosity in the camps.
“It was a little bit surprising from our point-of-view because we have a huge amount of respect for Essendon. They’re a really proud club and they have a great history. We have a great rivalry and we haven’t played them for a fairly long time now,” Cornes said.
“They made the finals last year and if you look at their game last week you’ll see that they’re playing some outstanding footy.
"Their tackle count and their attack on the footy last week was terrific, so we’ve certainly got a lot of respect for them.”
Port Adelaide has won the past five games played between the two sides and Cornes said it was possible Knights had made the comments to try and manufacture a response from the inconsistent Bombers.
“Essendon was pretty great last week and they got themselves up for that game, so I’m sure they’ll try and get themselves up again this week,” Cornes said.
“We’ll just be approaching the game as we have the past couple of weeks and his comments aren’t going to affect the outcome of the game. It’s just about us doing what we’ve been doing and that’s winning the footy; tackling hard and putting a lot of pressure on.”
The Power will have almost a full list to choose from, ahead of Saturday night’s clash with the Bombers at Etihad Stadium.
Mercurial forward Daniel Motlop (hamstring) is expected to return after a week in the SANFL and goalkickers Cameron Hitchcock and Nick Salter are also pressing for selection.
Cornes said Motlop would add an x-factor to the Port Adelaide line up.
“Motts is a quality player. He’s had a six-week block of training where he’s trained really well and then he’s gone back and played really well for North Adelaide,” he said.
“When he’s up and going he’s one of our better players, so he’ll surely come under consideration this week.”
