Media Street: Kane Cornes to film new Sunday night AFL show from his pool shed

Heard of Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee? Kane Cornes is taking another big step to match his US idols with a new Sunday night TV show this year.

Just when you thought it might not be possible, Kane Cornes is taking it to the next level.

The SEN commentator and Channel 7 expert is rapidly becoming Australia’s version of Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee – the two biggest, and most controversial, sports broadcasters in the States.

Cornes has taken over from Eddie McGuire as Mr Everywhere in the media and he’s channelling his American idols with a Sunday night show, ‘First Up with Kane Cornes’ which is being filmed from his pool shed.

Kane Cornes pictured with dad Graham last month. Picture: Matt Loxton

US sports analyst Pat McAfee. Picture: Candice Ward / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA

As soon as the siren sounds on the final game of the weekend, afl.com.au will go live to Cornes’ Adelaide home where he will spew out his thoughts on what has transpired over the previous four days.

Co-host Sarah Olle will be back in the studio in Melbourne with her job to fire up Cornes (which we know isn’t very hard) about all the controversies of the round.

“I have always taken inspiration from sports talk-shows in the US, and this new format will be the first cab off the rank when it comes to opinions from the round, in a Vodcast style not seen before in AFL Media,” Cornes said.

“I couldn’t be more excited to work with Sarah Olle on this new and innovative format.”

The former Port Adelaide 300-gamer has a lot on his plate this season including hosting the breakfast show on SEN twice a week, fronting a new show ‘Agenda Setters’ on Monday and Tuesday nights on Ch. 7 while also doing expert commentary, mainly on Thursday nights.

And just for good measure, after he’s finished his 15-minute AFL website show Cornes will then go again and record Kane’s Call, a quick five-minute version which will be shown on Ch 7.

BIG RECRUIT A NO SHOW?

Channel Seven has its season launch on Wednesday but one new recruit who won’t be there is Caroline Wilson.

Wilson, who jumped ship from Ch. 9 with fellow Footy Classified panellists Kane Cornes and Craig Hutchison at the end of last season, is still having issues with her former employer.

There is an issue over some clauses in her Nine contract which they argue prevents her from hopping over to the opposition straight away.

While getting slightly nervous, the Seven hierarchy is confident everything will be smoothed over in time for Wilson to take her seat on the Agenda Setters, the new Monday night show alongside Hutchison, Cornes and Nick Riewoldt.

There is also speculation swirling about the role Seven legend Bruce McAvaney will play this season.

He made a triumphant return for the finals as a host and he is expected to do the same for some of the marquee games this season but there is also a whisper which isn’t going away that McAvaney may dust off the binoculars and call some Sunday night games.

Fox Footy’s Alastair Lynch, Leigh Matthews and Jonathan Brown.

BELLS AND WHISTLES

Fox Footy is wheeling out all the nice value-added touches for its first season covering all nine games buy itself.

Viewers will notice some subtle changes including the scoring running along the bottom of the screen like it does for the NFL in America.

A new studio has been built, the highlight being a curved-screen which is a stunning 56 square metres while at the games there will be more drone shots and an increase in cameras for the Thursday and Friday night blockbusters.

There is also a new coaches tool called ‘Rocket’ which replicates the Champion Data metrics and compares six metrics of each team.

Originally published as Media Street: Kane Cornes to film new Sunday night AFL show from his pool shed