Footy media shake-up: How an invite to a family dinner led Kane Cornes to ditch Channel 9 for 7

Channel 7 have picked up footy media’s hottest property Kane Cornes — but how did they manage to get him on side? Insiders reveal details of a four-hour dinner that changed everything.

AFL commentator Kane Cornes has ditched Channel 9 for 7. Picture: Nine

Channel 7’s audacious poaching of the hottest property in footy media, Kane Cornes, can be tracked back to the ‘human touch’ of an invite for a chat and bite to eat at a family home.

Cornes was persuaded to ditch Channel 9 for 7 after being convinced that the network had a plan for his future and broad opportunities available during a four-hour catch up at the home of Chris Jones, the recently elevated director of sport at 7.

The daring plan to lure Cornes to Seven only went into action after Jones was promoted to his new role at the start of July.

His approach to Cornes is believed to have started with a cold call to float the idea of him switching stations.

According to an insider, it was the invite to come over to Jones’ house and the human touch that chat brought to the negotiations, that led to footy’s most consistent headline maker seeing his future at Seven.

Chris Jones (centre) had a daring plan to lure Kane Cornes to Seven. He is pictured with Lewis Martin and Hamish McLachlan. Picture: Supplied

Seven’s vision for a revitalised and re-energised approach to its footy coverage and plan for a suite of new AFL related shows appealed to Cornes, as did the opportunity for him to part of Seven’s footy broadcast team in a special comments role, as well as sharing his opinions on 7News.

Cornes, who has been a key part of Footy Classified since 2020, was in a position to be tempted.

His contract with Nine was up at the end of this year and nothing had been locked in for 2025 and beyond.

The lack of attention Nine paid to their top footy talent ended up costing them dearly in the form of defection and has left the Footy Classified brand bruised and banged up.

Caroline Wilson, Craig Hutchison and Kane Cornes have all left Channel 9. Picture: Channel 9

Seven is understood to be aiming to have AFL related programs on air on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights next year.

The Front Bar will continue without change with the new shows having no impact on that hit vehicle for Sam Pang, Mick Molloy and Andy Maher.

In late August it was announced Cornes was moving to Seven in 2025.

For Jones, it was an impressive start, landing a big fish less than two months after starting his new gig.

In the past week it was revealed Caroline Wilson was also exiting Nine and heading to Seven next year. Craig Hutchison, whose company Rainmaker will be producing the various new footy shows for Seven, has left Nine.

Spicy feud between Kane Cornes and Dale Thomas explodes again

Eddie McGuire, boss of JAMTV which makes Footy Classified for Nine, did not mince words over the talent exodus from the Monday edition of the AFL analysis show, labelling Cornes, Wilson and Hutchison as “list cloggers”.

Cornes said recently leaving Nine was not a difficult decision.

“In the end it was an easy call, even if that isn’t the answer most people would expect,” he said.

“I’ve always been ambitious and had a go, and I’ve been toiling away for 10 years at this media game. I’ve done a lot of flying hours and I wanted to work with a network that had the football rights where I could be behind the microphone on the biggest games. But Channel 9 was great to me.”

Meanwhile McGuire hosted the My Room Grand Final Spectacular on Thursday which raised more than $5.2 million for the My Room charity.