Kane Cornes will become a ten-year Port Adelaide player after signing a new contract to keep him at Alberton until at least the end of 2010.

The contract is an extension of his current deal that still had a year to run.

Drafted back in 2000 at selection No. 20, Cornes has developed from a player who used to knock on coach Mark Williams’ door to ask what he could do to get a game, to a player consistently rated among the best-on-ground.

Multi-faceted as both a tagger and ball magnet, awards in the running machine’s bag include 2004 Premiership, 2001 and 2002 Pre-season Premierships, All-Australian in 2005, runner up in the Best and Fairest in 2004 and 2005 and third in 2006.

Cornes said that signing with the Power was made easy with the exciting development of the playing group.

“I think the club is in a great place,” Cornes said. “I feel as though looking to the next three years we’ll be very successful with such a young group, especially having given so many young guys an opportunity this year.

“Definitely my best chance to play in another premiership is here at Port Adelaide. I want to be a one club player and hopefully this is going a long way towards that.

“The two young guys that I work with, Adam Thomson and Travis Boak, are great and I really enjoy that side of footy and working with two quality people.

“I wanted to get the contract done before the finals and in the end it was done really smoothly.”

Senior coach Mark Williams was full of praise for the star midfielder.

“Kane continually proves why he is one of our most important players with his commitment, professionalism and hard work,” Williams said. “There was no finer example of that than his performance against Hawthorn on the weekend.”