EIGHT Port Adelaide SANFL players have signed with the club, just days before the Magpies pre-season begins.

Captain, Steven Summerton, led the charge signing up for his 11th season of league football at Alberton.

Joining Summerton in signing on for 2016 is Louis Sharrad, Tom Gray, Sid Masters, Jonathon Ross, Robbie Young, Luke Reynolds and academy product Tom Corcoran.

New Magpie senior coach Chad Cornes says he’s rapt to have so many players commit even before they’ve started training.

“It’s great news for the club to have eight guys signed up this early, it shows the boys are keen to get stuck into it,” Cornes said.

Cornes said he was looking forward to choosing the rest of the 15 man contracted players over the pre-season.

“Having those seven spots available gives guys an incentive to train really well to impress and they’ll get rewarded if they do the right thing,” Cornes said.

The Magpies will start pre-season on Monday with a 3km time trial at the Uni Loop followed by a light training.

Cornes also looking forward to kicking off his senior career next week but admits to being a little apprehensive.

“There’s a bit of nerves going into my first training session, not knowing the boys but from what I’ve heard it’s a great group and a group that’s willing to work hard,” Cornes said.

The 36-year-old says he’s planning to tap into Summerton’s knowledge of the group.

“I’ve spoken to Summo a few times and I’ve also heard so much about him and how he plays the Port Adelaide way,” Cornes said.

“He’s a great role model and a guy I’ll rely on to fill me in on players along the way.”

Cornes is also enjoying tapping into the coaching knowledge at Alberton too, particularly senior coach Ken Hinkley and Magpies coach for 2014 and 2015, Garry Hocking.

“There’s just so much experience here, you just look around and you’ve got so many people who can teach you and I’m willing to learn off,” Cornes said.

“Myself and Buddha have spoken a few times and he’s let me know what to expect, how to balance the work load and filled me in about the players.”

Chad says he has had qualified support from his family on his decision to return to Alberton from Greater Western Sydney, when he was an assistant coach.

“He (Graham Cornes) was pretty comfortable with me up there (at GWS) and they’d treated me really well,” Cornes said.

“But then he could see I was really keen to get back to the club I love and the club I’ve got so much history with, once he realised that, he was quite supportive of it.”

He’s also looking forward to coaching against Glenelg, with brother Kane, a fellow premiership player, taking on a mid-field coaching role there.

“I found out about that on facebook so that was good of him to tell me that he was going down there,” Cornes said.

“There will certainly be a strong rivalry when we take on Glenelg this year which will be good.”