Cornes knows the ecstasy and agony of the AFL grand final experience having won one as a 21-year-old and then losing one badly three years later.

As the AFL flag-winner turned high-profile media pundit prepares to call his first grand final on Saturday for Channel Seven, part of a star-studded team headlined by Bruce McAvaney, he has opened up on how not truly enjoying the 2004 win was one of his great “regrets”.

The teams Cornes beat and lost to are the two teams playing in this year’s decider. His Port Adelaide team defeated the Lions by 40 points in 2004 and then were on the receiving end of a record 119-point thrashing at the hands of the Cats in 2007.

His advice to the players going into the grand final, some of them for the first time, was to enjoy the week and the day, something

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