Kane Cornes‘ stunning pre-season time trial a result of Port Adelaide veteran’s new training methods PORT Adelaide veteran Kane Cornes has revealed the secret to his stunning pre-season time trial which not only shocked his teammates but also surprised himself. Cornes, who turns 32 next month, smashed his personal best time for the 3km run by nearly seven seconds before the team left for Dubai in a remarkable performance that had his teammates thinking he had discovered the fountain of youth. It was Cornes’ ninth consecutive time trial win, dating back to 2006, and prompted captain Travis Boak to praise the 293-game midfielder for setting an elite standard for the Power playing group. “Having the oldest player on the list come in and set a PB is just great for the group to learn off,’’ Boak said. While Port won’t publicly reveal the players’ time trial results, it is understood Cornes broke the 9 min, 15 sec barrier. “It was a really good time and I probably never thought I would be able to run that fast, so it was a nice surprise,’’ Cornes said. “The last time I set a personal best was way back in 2008, so I haven’t been able to crack that one for a while. “To be able to shave six or seven seconds off my PB showed I’m in reasonable condition.’’ Cornes put his standout display down to a change in off-season running routine. Admitting he takes just one week off at the end of a season to rest, Cornes — who has an incredible work ethic — this year shelved his long distance running for shorter, faster runs and reaped the rewards. “I changed up my training a little bit just to see how things went,’’ said Cornes, who is on target to next season become the first Power player to play 300 AFL games. “I went away from the longer volumes of work and did a lot more shorter, faster, high-speed stuff. “Whether that had anything to do with it (his career-best run) I don’t know, but I’m feeling good.’’ Cornes admitted to “a few nerves’’ after watching young guns Tom Clurey and Sam Colquhoun dominate the 3km time trial for one-to-four year players two weeks earlier. “They’ve been flying so I knew I had to step up if I wanted to hold off the young blokes,’’ he said. The four-times club champion said he is approaching 2015 as his final AFL season, despite blowing his teammates away on the training track. “I’ll go in thinking that it’s my last year but I’ve probably done that for the past three years,’’ he said. “If things are going okay in Round 17 or so next year I might re-think that and look to go on but at this point I am treating it as my last.’’ As for his approaching 300-game milestone, Cornes — the last man still playing from the Power’s historic 2004 premiership side — said reaching the mark would be “great for the family’’.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 02:19:42 +0000
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