AFL 2022: Port Adelaide’s true hatred of the Adelaide Crows comes to the fore from club champions

There was no holding back when a couple of Port Adelaide champions declared their true feelings about the Adelaide Crows.

Port Adelaide assistant Chad Cornes . Picture Emma Brasier

Scott Burns has no trouble believing Port Adelaide players hate their cross-town rivals.

But the Adelaide Crows senior assistant coach prefers to take a more Zen approach to preparations for Saturday night’s season-ending Showdown.

Fuel was added to the fire of an already white-hot rivalry when Power assistant coach Chad Cornes, speaking to former Port champion, and his brother, Kane, declared his hatred for the Crows runs deep.

“Kane, you know more than anyone how much I hate them and we hate them as a footy club,” Cornes said on SEN.

“It’s true. That rivalry is still there and the boys understand the importance of (it).

“It’s just a game we have to win, to put it simply.

“I just couldn’t think of anything worse than not putting in a Port Adelaide performance in that game and taking the victory.”

Adelaide won the Showdown in Round 3 (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The strong words will no doubt inflame passions amongst the respective fan bases ahead of the much-anticipated clash.

But Burns preached a mantra of self-improvement rather than return fire on Monday.

“I do feel that Port Adelaide hate Adelaide,” Burns said.

“I think that’s true but it’s a very strong word ‘hate’ isn’t it?

“I think no matter who you play there has to be an element of hate … you have to hate getting beaten.

“We know what it means to our supporters but we’re making sure that what we’re building here is that there is an element of hate in terms of us getting beaten one-v-one, or getting beaten week to week.

“We want to be better than that no matter who we play.”

Adelaide can draw level with the Power on 26 Showdown wins with a victory in the 52nd instalment of the storied rivalry.

The Crows can also make it four wins in a row for the first time under Matthew Nicks, as well as equal Port’s number of wins for the season with both teams to finish with a 9-13 win-loss record if Adelaide can sweep this year’s two Showdowns.

“We probably don’t compare to other teams so much,” Burns said.

“It’s more about where we’ve come from.

The Power after their loss during in Round 3 (Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

“We’ve reduced the list again this season in terms of age and experience so it was always a bit of an unknown.

“When you lose (Rory) Sloane and (Paul) Seedsman for basically 12 months it can put more pressure on the senior players but they’ve been fantastic.

“It was hard early for people to see because we weren’t as consistent but I think if you look at the last six-to-eight weeks, the majority of times we’ve been in the contest and you can see the improvement.”

Adelaide will almost certainly need to make one change to the side that defeated North Melbourne by 29 points after Shane McAdam was subbed out with a hamstring injury.

Wayne Milera was a late withdrawal from the line-up against the Kangaroos with back soreness, but is expected to be available to slot back into the forward line should McAdam be ruled out.