NEW PORT Adelaide SANFL coach Chad Cornes will also have an impact on the Power in 2016.

Cornes was just days from re-signing as an assistant coach at Greater Western Sydney when he received a phone call from Port coach Ken Hinkley, asking him to replace Garry Hocking as coach of the Magpies.

Hocking has moved back into the Port's AFL coaching group, but still helped out on match days during his two-year stint as the SANFL senior coach.

Cornes will fill a similar position and will also help develop the Power's key position players.

"Kenny's keen to get me involved some how, what exact role that is I'm not sure but he wants me involved match days," Cornes said.

"During the week I'll obviously be here everyday, I think he wants me to play a role in developing the key position players.

"So to be able to be the head coach over at the Magpies but still be under the AFL system and learn from Kenny and Matty Nicks and Garry Hocking – it's just such a great role."

Cornes spent 13 seasons at Alberton between 1999 and 2011 before joining Greater Western Sydney where he retired in 2013 having notched 255 senior games.

He said he wasn't sure whether he'd like to coach an AFL side in his own right in the future – but certainly wasn't ruling the prospect out.

"[I'm] still a long way off coaching an AFL side, I'm not really putting a limit on my coaching – where it's going to take me," he said.

"If you asked me four years ago if I would be coaching the Magpies, I wouldn't have seen that as a possibility.

"The last couple of years at GWS I really learnt a lot off some really good people, love the coaching now and to get this opportunity was just too good to pass up." 

In charge of the Magpies, Cornes said he aspired to be a "ruthless" coach, but one that rewarded intensity and hard work with "a lot of love".