Port Adelaide midfielder Kane Cornes has revealed the remarkable fallout from former coach Matthew Primus’ sacking in 2012 - and the brutal 4am beach session that followed.

Primus, a club great, was senior coach of the Power from 2010 before a Round 19 loss to a struggling Greater Western Sydney outfit saw him step down immediately and be replaced by caretaker coach Garry Hocking.

Speaking to AFL Media, Cornes recounted the extraordinary penalty he and his teammates paid for Primus’ sacking.

“I remember sitting down (after the game) in the visitors change rooms for Matthew Primus’ briefing and the first thing he said to us was ‘Well boys, I’m f***ed’,” Cornes said.

“So he knew it, he knew his career was over and he knew how devastating it had been and the result that played out and a result that just should never ever have happened against a bunch of 18-year-old kids that basically sealed his fate as a coach.

“So we turn up to the football club on that Monday... that afternoon a new caretaker coach was announced and that was going to be Garry Hocking.”

Cornes says he’ll never forget the first address the former Peel Thunder coach gave that first day.

“He said ‘Boys, our coach has just paid the ultimate price for how performance and how pathetic we have been, now it’s time for us to pay the price. I wanna see you at Grange Beach at 4am in the morning, go home and I’ll see you then’,” Cornes recalled.

“Middle of winter by now, it’s July, it’s freezing, we turn up to the beach it’s pitch black. It’s 4am in the morning at Grange Beach and I’ve never seen the ocean put on an uglier display.

“There was waves crashing over, it was as cold as you can imagine. Buddha said ‘Strip down we’re about to pay the price’, so we all got into our budgie smugglers or board shorts ... usually when coaches have this sort of quick dip you do a few duck dives and get out but this was completely different.

“We stayed out in that freezing cold water for over an hour at 4am and it is honestly the coldest that I have ever been, to the point where you really question whether you wanted to keep doing this, that’s how depressing it was to turn up to a footy club when you lose.

“When you’re out in the middle of the ocean at 4am in the middle of winter with no clothes on with a dejected group, you really do start to question is this really what you want to be doing with your life?”

Cornes said the torment didn’t end when Hocking finally gave the all clear to exit the water.

“We all ran over to get our towels and he said ‘Boys, we’re not done yet. Get in a circle we’re going to continue to pay the price’,” Cornes said.

“So for another half an hour we started doing sit-ups and push ups and the sand was freezing and I’ll never forget it, my feet were just icy, so cold the sand was freezing.

“The only reason I think they did call it off is because a teammate of mine, Matty Thomas, who has not one ounce of fat on him... there was no protection from the cold, genuinely started to turn purple to the point where the medicos had to rush him to his car and get him warm because they were concerned that hypothermia was starting to set in and I’m not exaggerating there.

“I went home depressed, sat in the shower for about an hour and that was the price that we paid for the coach losing his job ... Ken Hinkley came in in 2013 and the following year we played finals, but it was certainly the most challenging, testing, certainly depressing couple of years of my career and that day, the day that we paid the price, I’ll never forget.”