Media Street: Kane Cornes on move to Channel 7, collateral damage of media criticism

Kane Cornes has trained himself not to let the criticism in during his time at the media, but Cornes tells Scott Gullan even some of his former teammates won’t return his calls.

Kane Cornes has trained himself not to let the criticism in but on this occasion it’s the lack of a return phone call which has him concerned.

The man with boundless opinions in the AFL understands he isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea and there’s always going to be collateral damage when he goes hard but sometimes it can hurt.

Given he played 300 games with Port Adelaide, his views on the Power are close to his heart and in his rapid rise to the top of the media game he’s found out that discussing his old team can be tough.

Dressed in a smart new suit and shiny shoes, Cornes has just been presented on stage at Channel 7’s season launch where he is the new star having jumped ship from Ch 9 at the end of last year.

Cornes is changing teams in 2025.

He’s excited about the season ahead but when quizzed about the times he may have crossed the line or when his opinion has damaged a previous relationship, he brings up two of Port’s favourite sons.

“The hardest ones are when you’ve had an opinion on someone who you know really well and you really respect,” Cornes explains.

“I had an opinion about Travis Boak earlyish into my media career which was the wrong opinion. I didn’t go about it the right way and the relationship became strained as a result.

“I had to go to (former teammate) Paul Stewart’s wedding and I felt really awkward going to the wedding. I thought this isn’t great and there are three or four across the journey that you would have back for sure, maybe more.

“We (Boak) have patched that up but I’m not sure it is ever the same.”

More recently Cornes wasn’t a fan of Port’s coaching handover from Ken Hinkley to his former teammate Josh Carr.

“Josh Carr is in my top five teammates, I loved playing alongside him but I think Port have made the wrong call with what they have done,” he says.

“It is nothing against Josh Carr but I wouldn’t have made that call myself.

“I don’t know what he thinks, I have tried to ring him but he hasn’t returned my call yet so that might give you an indication. They are the hard ones and that’s the only time you think, ‘Oh sh-t, a bit awkward’.”

There will be a lot of Cornes for punters to consume in the coming months. On Ch 7 he will feature on Thursday night football and then Monday and Tuesday where he will be the headline act on ‘The Agenda Setters’.

It’s here where he will go head-to-head with Fox Footy’s popular shows AFL360, On The Couch, The Midweek Tackle and also his former colleagues at Channel Nine’s Footy Classified.

Cornes will also continue hosting SEN morning radio on Monday and Friday and also appear on Sportsday with Gerard Healy at various times throughout the week.

Then on Sunday night he will give his thoughts on the end of the round from a purpose-built studio in the pool shed of his Adelaide home to afl.com.au and Ch 7.

“It is just a bigger audience, it’s grander, it’s doing blockbuster games which is what I always wanted,” he says. “And you’re part of a huge team, I’m just a small piece in a broader team which I kind of like.”

Cornes is part of a sweeping change at Channel 7.

He has bought an apartment in Melbourne to help with the travel load and his oldest son, Eddy, who is keen to break into the sports media field and already has his own podcast, is making the move permanently, doing some work at SEN and Ch 7.

Cornes, 42, loves American sport and as one of his new Ch 7 on-air partners, St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt, says: “He has got Stephen A vibes”.

Riewoldt is referring to Stephen A. Smith, the ESPN commentator who has built an empire off the back of his cutting-edge opinions which has him getting paid around $20 million and even being talked about as a possible presidential candidate.

“I watch a lot of the American stuff,” Cornes says. “And a lot of the time they’re not in the same studio together, someone is from home, it doesn’t matter because really the footy media is news, opinion and live sport.

“That is all that matters. What is the news no-one knows, what’s the opinion and live sport. It doesn’t matter where you are giving your opinion from, I can do an Instagram video for a minute and that reaches a couple of hundred thousand people instantly.

“Does anyone really care that I have got no top on and I’m at the Esplanade in Glenelg? It’s about the opinion and people agreeing or disagreeing, then they go bang.”

He started thinking about a media career during his playing days and did a traineeship at radio station 5AA in his first year of AFL in 2001.

Cornes and Travis Boak. Photo Sarah Reed.

There was a brief flirtation with the fire brigade before he was taken under the wing of Craig Hutchison and started with his Crocmedia network in 2016.

“When I first started I was in a hurry but Hutchy always said, ‘You just need flying hours’, So I did footy SA on TV then SEN SA, just got comfortable and in a rhythm.”

Over the nine years Cornes has become “disciplined” in not reading social media comments. With one push of a button he can get to the top of notifications on his X account so he doesn’t see all the abuse from the faceless keyboard warriors.

“I am conscious of overload so I work hard not to (be everywhere) but I know the digital teams want everything out there but you have to make sure what is out there is said in the right context,” he says.

“That’s a big one because things like that can get you in trouble.”

And get old teammates not ringing you back.

Originally published as Media Street: Kane Cornes on move to Channel 7, collateral damage of media criticism