Kane Cornes has once again stirred the pot in the AFL community with his recent comments regarding North Melbourne’s Harry Sheezel and captain Jy Simpkin following their team’s loss to Port Adelaide. The ex-Port Adelaide champ even targeted Sheezel post-game for “stat-padding” while playing in the game. Sheezel became the first-ever player to have 30 disposals on debut that day. Cornes counters that Sheezel’s numbers may look great, but they’re not having the impact needed to assist his side.
In his analysis, Cornes pointed to one main worrisome factor. He even went as far to say that Sheezel’s disposals were detrimental, given his high clip of 29.7 disposals per game. He wanted Sheezel to impact the game in a more constructive way by getting to the forward half of the ground. Cornes labelled Sheezel’s performance as “brilliant,” drawing comparisons to St Kilda’s Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera. He implied that Wanganeen-Milera’s contributions were more impactful when it mattered most.
For more than a month, Cornes has been tearing into Sheezel’s games. As a sports dad, he often wonders just how well Sheezel is doing out there on the field. His comments have stirred a hornet’s nest of reaction from pundits and ex-players. St Kilda legend and former South Australian Nick Riewoldt has come out strongly against Cornes. Riewoldt came to Sheezel’s defense, saying, “I think you’re being super critical here.”
In addition to players publicly, Cornes didn’t hold back in his criticism of North Melbourne captain Jy Simpkin. He warned that Simpkin was “on the lip” when playing against Port Adelaide. That would imply that Simpkin had his eyes more on the whine rather than on winning with his team. This type of behavior, as Cornes would tell it, really undermined the team’s performance and morale.
The rivalry between Port Adelaide and North Melbourne was already at a fever pitch, especially following Jason Horne-Francis’ move from North to Port. Cornes’ allegiance to his former club may have influenced his critical remarks, as he aims to highlight areas for improvement within North Melbourne.
Craig Hutchison, in assessing Cornes’ comments on the situation, rightly expressed that the attack appears over the top. He stated, “It’s out of control… you’ve lost all objectivity.” This shift in thinking shows the growing concern among many analysts about the shifting balance between quality critiques and brutal judgments.
Cornes doubled down on his original stance by once more arguing that Sheezel hasn’t shown any measurable progress in recent performances. He remarked, “I don’t know if he did have a better game,” challenging the notion that Sheezel’s statistics alone justify a positive assessment of his performance.
As these discussions play out something else is made clear, just how complicated player evaluations are through the lens of the AFL. Coaches, analysts, and fans alike have long struggled to parse the differences in contributions from individual players. They go deeper, past the stats, to find out how everybody on the field affects the game.
