Channel 7’s Kane Cornes – all Port Adelaide legend and little butter- wouldn’t be anyone’s first choice to make the case for the North Melbourne Football Club. His controversial comments regarding young star Harry Sheezel have certainly garnered the most headlines. Tensions further escalated after Cornes went on Channel 7’s “The Agenda Setters.” Throughout the season, he began to use the phrase “Sheezey Ball” on air to describe Sheezel’s style, saying how the 20-year-old was “stat-padding” while not really impacting any games.
The tensions reached a climax when Cornes ranked Sheezel at No. 28 in his top 50 AFL players list, a position some believe undermines the young talent’s potential and contributions to the team. In an exemplary show of strength, Cornes was subsequently banned from North Melbourne’s rooms on game day. They couldn’t get past the idea that his criticisms were almost bullying.
David King, a former North Melbourne champion and commentator, publicly defended Sheezel, stating, “I think you’ve been disrespectful to a young player of 20 years of age.” King said he would be ‘furious’ if he were Cornes’ target, stressing that developing stars of the league deserve respect.
Cornes did not shy away from addressing King’s comments during their discussion on SEN’s Fireball Friday. Once again, he doubled down on his personal conviction that it’s the duty of a professional commentator to denounce player failures. He turned his anger to the board of North Melbourne, accusing them of wasting the club’s resources by appointing Alastair Clarkson as head coach. Cornes responded to King’s defense of the club by cheekily naming the team as the “Runaway Roos.” He took on their tough-guy image as unbeatable, hard-nosed fighters.
“Aren’t you the Shinboners? Aren’t you the tough, rugged Shinboners who stand up to people face to face? The ‘Runaway Roos’ is what I’m calling you.” – Kane Cornes
Cornes’ statements caused a storm of outrage. This backlash serves to highlight an interesting split in attitudes towards not only player evaluation, but wider public discourse within the AFL – again, both among commentators and clubs. Discussions regarding player performance are getting contentious. As King and others have noted, this is not about individual player experiences, and so one must now await North Melbourne’s response to these largely negative observations and plans for addressing them in 2024 and beyond.
