Kane Cornes' Port career not over: Primus
Port Adelaide coach Matthew Primus insists triple best and fairest Kane Cornes' career at the AFL club isn't over.
Cornes was the only player dropped after Port's record 165-point loss to Hawthorn last week.
His axing came amid reports Cornes had been told he had no future at the club, despite being contracted for another two years.
Primus on Friday denied the reports, saying no decision had been made on the 28-year-old premiership player's future.
"Kane is a good chance to get back in the team next week and the week after that," Primus told reporters.
" ... It's certainly not doomsday and the end of his career just by not playing this weekend.
"He is contracted here and he's still a chance to play for us the rest of the year, so no decision has been made on his career."
Primus said he had no part in Cornes accepting a three-year contract extension, which was announced by the club in late August last year.
Primus wrongly believed Cornes' new contract was struck at the start of last year.
"I was an assistant coach then, so I didn't have any role in the contract stuff, but he would have been contracted at the start of 2010," Primus said.
In fact, Primus was Port's caretaker coach at the time of Cornes' contract extension.
Cornes this week said he would refuse to be traded from the Power and expected the club to honour his contract.
Primus said the 223-gamer was dropped from Port's side to host Western Bulldogs on Sunday purely on form reasons.
Cornes was rated among the best tagging midfielders in the competition but Primus, in his first full year as Power coach, tried to change him into a half-back or winger.
The move failed, culminating in Cornes being dropped after round three, ending 174 successive games - at the time, the longest streak of consecutive games in the competition.
Cornes returned after a two-week absence and recently returned to his tagging role.
Cornes' elder brother Chad retired a fortnight ago after consistently being overlooked for selection this season as Primus embarked on a youth-focused rebuilding program.
Primus said he remained committed to rebuilding despite the Power winning just twice in their worst ever season.
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