“Hard work on the [training] track is a little bit of a cop out and is said very easily,” Cornes told portadelaidefc.com.au after Saturday’s match.
“It’s not what you say, it’s what you do. Guys have just got to turn up ready to play tough, hard footy.”
The Blues romped away with a nine-goal third quarter at Telstra Dome, which prompted coach Mark Williams to label his side soft. Cornes agreed, but was keen to put the term into context.
“I think it’s soft in terms of work rate and covering for each other – that sort of soft. Probably not so much head over the footy, but missing tackles and all the little things that, when we’re up and running, we do really well,” he said.
“There’s so many things you’ve got to be good at today, and the No.1 thing we want at Port Adelaide is guys playing tough, hard footy. That’s what we’ve got to get back to and everything else will come.
“We’ve been looking for a big response ever since we lost to Sydney over there and it just hasn’t come – it’s been just in patches.”
Williams took his charges straight into the meeting room after the final siren for a soul-searching session to try and get to the bottom of their fall from the top of the ladder where they sat just over a month ago.
“He was just searching for answers as much as we were,” Cornes said. “He said at six-and-one the footy club was just a great place to be around, coming to training and reading the papers, and now we’re back with the pack.
“He went around the room and asked where everyone was at individually and what they could do to help the team. What we’ve got to get back to now is just doing anything we can do to help each other to get that win on the board.”
Cornes rejected the idea that Port’s rise to the top of the premiership table had come too early in the playing group’s development.
“You try and win every game you can,” he said. “It was such a great start for the boys and that great start has got us in a position where we’re middle of the road and it gives us an opportunity to make something of the year.”
“It’s a nice fallback position to be in … because we’re not out of the race.”
