AFL 2020: Kane Cornes reacts to ‘extraordinary’ Adelaide Crows changeroom scenes

AFL legend Kane Cornes has spoken further about the “extraordinary” scenes viewers were treated to during the Crows’ latest loss.

Matthew Knicks had to simplify his message.

AFL legend Kane Cornes has elaborated on the bizarre footage that emerged from Adelaide’s changerooms at halftime during its 69-point loss to North Melbourne on Saturday.

Crows coach Matthew Nicks was shown using water bottles to explain tactics to his players as the club searched for its first win of 2020. They didn’t get the message though and went down 19.5 (119) to 7.8 (50) to a team that, going into the weekend, was 17th.

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The Crows remain anchored to the bottom of the ladder and face the prospect of going an entire season without tasting victory.

On Twitter, Cornes said he has “never seen anything like” Nicks’ use of water bottles at AFL level and questioned whether it was something you’d see in the Under-10s. The Port Adelaide great spoke further about the “demeaning” scenes on SEN’s Whateley.

“I can’t let Adelaide off. I know they’re becoming a little bit irrelevant and there is a little bit of fatigue about the situation Adelaide finds themselves in, but this is a club that has never, ever been in the state they are in now,” Cornes said.

“I just thought the vision that will last with me for a while was Matthew Nicks explaining his game style with drink bottles. That’s how basic he had to get the message to his players.

“I thought it was quite demeaning for the players, but I don’t begrudge Nicks for doing it. But just to have them sitting there like they’re in kindergarten explaining the game style with drink bottles when every other team is using vision and iPads and there’s Nicks using drink bottles.

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“What has gone on with Nicks’ message that 10 players with 100 games or more (experience) can’t get the message that he wants out there, that they’ve practised for seven months about defending the ground that he needs to use drink bottles to get his message through? Far out. It’s extraordinary.

“The question will remain and there’s a long way to go before we judge Nicks as a coach — does he have the hard edge that the good coaches have had?

“All great coaches, and I know it’s a new era and there’s different ways of giving feedback, but all great coaches have had somewhat of a hard edge. I’m not sure Nicks has it and it’s pretty ugly at Adelaide right now.”

This is Nicks’ first season in charge of an AFL team and he has suffered a nightmare run since taking over from Don Pyke.

Footy commentator Gerard Whateley was scathing of the Crows’ effort against the Kangaroos.

“They were abysmal. Their lack of willingness to run and then you could tell their positioning was all wrong by the way North Melbourne was able to cut through,” he said.

“These players were entitled to nothing more than 101 (basics).”