It is the burning question that had to be asked: how would have Kane Cornes the Port Adelaide star handled Kane Cornes the hard-hitting AFL commentator if their worlds had somehow collided?
Appearing on Channel 7’s Unfiltered, gun interviewer Hamish McLachlan presented the now 43-year-old Cornes with the impossible scenario.
“How would you have gone if Kane Cornes existed when you were playing?” McLachlan asked on Unfiltered.
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Curiously, but not surprisingly, Cornes addressed the question through his commentator lens.
“Kane in the media would have been hard on Kane as a player,” Cornes said.
“Like, if I got a hold of that best-and-fairest story, I would have whacked him. I just would have. So it’s kind of, it’s kind of interesting to analyse a lot of that, isn’t it?”
The best-and-fairest story Cornes is referring to is well-publicised. Cornes was filthy in 2005 when (as a 22-year-old) he finished runner-up (for the second straight year) in Port Adelaide’s awards night.
McLachlan then inquired about Cornes’ decision to quit football and join the fire brigade in the middle of the season “when the clubs was on its knees” in 2015.
Cornes: ”Same thing. I would have said selfish, putting himself in front of the team. All would have been accurate, by the way.”
But Cornes also gave a clue as to how he would have reacted as a player if there had been a Kane in the media during his decorated 300-game career.
“(Inaugural Adelaide captain) Chris McDermott wrote a front-page article about me in 2009 in the Sunday Mail saying that I shouldn’t be in Port’s team for Round 1,” Cornes said.
“I didn’t speak to him for 10 years and Chris McDermott was my idol. I loved Chris McDermott. I still love Chris McDermott.”
McLachlan: “The irony of that is unbelievable.”
Cornes: “The inspirational captain of Glenelg, the team I love, the first captain of the Crows. He was great to me as a kid and he wrote this article. I didn’t speak to him for 10 years.”
As a commentator, Cornes said his “main regrets” were usually when he had dialled up his hot takes “10-15 per cent” too much.
“So I don’t really regret calling out (North Melbourne’s) Harry Sheezel,” Cornes said, referring to his Sheezy-ball take on Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters.
“Because what I was saying, I think, had merit based on facts or based on my opinion from watching. I don’t think what I said about (Richmond’s) Tim Taranto was wrong. I just dialled it up 10-15 per cent too much. Same on Sheezel. So I don’t necessarily regret. I’ve got things wrong.
“I said, Richmond shouldn’t recruit Dion Prestia because they’re not in the premiership window. Well, Dion’s got a couple of medals around his neck to prove me otherwise. That was just an opinion. But the ones I regret are those that I’ve dialled up 10-15 per cent too much, turned the needle too far and got, not personal, but to the point where I can understand this would have had an impact on them.”
