POWER star Chad Cornes has pulled the pin on his season after achieving the final goal on his list for 2008 … beating the Crows.
Cornes, a noted Showdown performer, has been troubled by separate finger, knee, calf and shoulder complaints this season, but last week, told coach Mark Williams he had “one game left” in him this year.
“For weeks we’ve been battling as to whether to pick Chad or not and he keeps wanting to put up his hand. That just shows you the quality of the guy and leader he is,” Williams said on Monday.
“He wants to play and he wants to make a difference, but his body probably didn’t allow him to do anything near what he’s capable of doing.”
Cornes, a former winner of the Showdown Medal, was visibly hampered by his injuries on Sunday, but played a role in setting up the Power’s match winning goal to Danyle Pearce.
“You can see how many times Chad’s fumbled the ball of late and you think, what the hell is going on here? And he didn’t take off for a couple of marks where you think he’d probably be sitting on someone’s head,” Williams said.
“But he had a good impact on our game. He wasn’t best on ground, but he played his role and the forward line was pretty effective.
“He brings so much emotion and attitude to our group that it’s great to have him out there and I can’t wait for him to get back to what we all know is All-Australian form.”
Cornes will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder and knee this week and will also have the pin in his broken finger removed at a later stage. The premiership player is expected to be ready to go when the Power start pre-season training in late October/early November.
In other injury news, Travis Boak (groin), Peter Burgoyne (hamstring), Toby Thurstans (knee) and Matt Thomas (ankle) are all a chance to resume against Fremantle on Sunday while Robbie Gray (ankle), Damon White (hamstring) and Nathan Krakouer (hamstring) are at least two more weeks away.