Now he's quitting, Chad Cornes wants to set one thing straight: he's not the cocky AFL player you think he is.

"I have always doubted my ability, to this day I doubt myself," the Port Adelaide veteran said on Wednesday.

"People see me as a cocky, confident person but deep down I'm not that, I have always doubted myself and probably always will."

Cornes will end his decorated career after a farewell match against Collingwood on Saturday night.

The polarising 31-year-old retired as a player who loved to be hated by the opposition.

"If fans are booing you, you're doing something right," Cornes said.

"That is why Showdowns (against the Adelaide Crows) are my favourite games because everyone rips into me the whole game, it really does spur me on."

Cornes has endured a frustrating season when frequently overlooked for younger players as Port travel a rebuilding road.

He has played just eight games this season, despite Port being in last spot with two wins.

"There were moments when I got really frustrated early on in the year when I wasn't playing," he said.

"To get paid to play footy is still the best job in the world so even though when I wasn't playing it was disappointing, frustrating, I thought I should have been out there, I still really enjoyed the year."

Cornes, with 238 AFL games, is Port's third longest serving player; was third in the Brownlow medal in 2004 when he played in Port's premiership; a dual All Australian; finished five times in the top five of his club's best and fairest award.

The achievements shocked him.

"My first two years here, I was probably in the top five worst on the list - a very uncompetitive, skinny kid and football didn't mean the world to me back then," he said.

Cornes also battled adjusting to the full-time commitment of being a current AFL player.

"I am one that struggled to adapt to all the new zones and presses and all that kind of thing," he said.

"I just used to like getting out there and just playing the game and not having to think about it too much - you can't do that these days.

"I was never a massive fan of sitting in meetings and the theory behind footy, and to be a good successful team that is a massive part of it these days."

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