Kane Cornes ‘character assassinates’ Channel 7 rival as AFL legend fires back

A war of words has erupted between some of the biggest names in AFL media with a football legend firing back at Kane Cornes.

A war of words has erupted between AFL commentators on Channel 9 and Channel 7 after Kane Cornes delivered a brutal takedown of his media rivals during a segment on Nine’s The Sunday Footy Show.

The Port Adelaide great may have crossed the line on Sunday with his roast of Richmond champion and Channel 7 star Trent Cotchin, something rarely seen between competing football broadcasters.

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Cornes’ savage clip, which mocked the performance of Cotchin in front of the cameras, was slammed by Tigers legend and popular Channel 7 commentator Matthew Richardson.

Cornes on Monday doubled down on his viral drive-by, saying on his radio show that Richardson should “lighten up”.

The 41-year-old earlier appeared to have struck a chord with some viewers while making fun of Cotchin’s occasional dry moments in front of the camera.

Trent Cotchin analyses Collingwood's struggles against the Swans. Photo: Twitter, @FootyonNine.

Kane Cornes may have crossed the line. Photo: Twitter, @FootyonNine.

The Footy Show has previously poked fun of Geelong champion-turned Channel 7 analyst Joel Selwood, but Cornes’ efforts on Sunday went to a new level.

Cornes parodied a video shared on the 7Sport TikTok page where Cotchin spoke over the top of vision grabbed from Collingwood’s loss to Sydney in Round 1.

Cotchin provided his expert analysis on where it was going wrong for Collingwood in trying to move the ball forward against the Swans — but Cornes feasted upon the segment while making light of Cotchin’s somewhat stiff presentation style.

You can watch the clip in the video player at the top of this page.

“Hi guys, Kane Cornes here, I just wanted to show you what isn’t working for Hawthorn at the moment,” Cornes said, mimicking the same white ensemble, camera shot and monotone delivery used during Cotchin’s piece.

“So let’s take a look at the vision. In this example you can see James Sicily with the football and he kicks it to his teammate and he marks it. His teammate doesn’t quite know what to do so he decides to kick it to his teammate, who marks it as well.

Kane Cornes and Trent Cotchin in front of the camera.

“His teammate then kicks the ball and his teammate marks it and they play on and then he kicks it and there’s another mark. And then Hawthorn kick it back and then there’s another mark.

“So as you can see there, it’s ground-breaking vision. For more of this analysis stay tuned next week.”

The clip had the Footy Show panel of Nathan Brown, Matthew Lloyd, Tony Jones and Damian Barrett in stitches.

Cornes later said: “Take it in the right way. We take the mickey out of ourselves.”

Jones responded to one quip by saying: “You’ve just character assassinated Trent Cotchin.”

The segment ended with Jones looking down the camera and saying: “To the Cotchin family, our sincere apologies.”

One version of Cornes’ segment has been viewed more than 110,000 times on X, formerly known as Twitter.

It clearly didn’t sit well with Richardson.

The footy great wrote on X in response to the Cornes roast: “Taking the piss out of 2 AFL premiership captains. Bar getting lower and lower.”

Abbey Holmes, Joel Selwood, Brian Taylor, Erin Phillips and Luke Hodge with Channel 7 in 2024. Picture: Channel 7/Supplied.

Cornes responded to Richardson when speaking on his SEN Breakfast show on Monday morning.

He said he has not spoken to Cotchin about the segment.

When asked if he went too far, Cornes responded: “No it wasn’t Joel Selwood. It was the Trent Cotchin bit that he did on social media.

“We have fun on the Sunday Football Show. We take the mickey out of ourselves more than we take the mickey out of anyone else. I think Richo’s being a little bit sensitive there.

“If you watch the Front Bar on Channel 7, their whole show is taking the mickey out of people. So I was hoping it would be taken in the right way and 98 per cent of people I think thought it was OK.

Cornes said he would be “fine” if Cotchin has a crack at him.

“Surely we are big enough to be able to accept a bit of light-hearted fun,” he said.

“So Richo, lighten up.”

Channel 7 is fielding a beefed up football commentary team in 2024 with Selwood among several inclusions to the team.

Seven has been using a fluid commentary line up in 2024 with Brian Taylor, James Brayshaw, Richardson and Abbey Holmes featuring in the prime time Thursday night slot.

Dale Thomas, Jude Bolton, Erin Phillips, Luke Hodge, Shaun Burgoyne, Jobe Watson, Tim Watson, Cameron Ling, Nathan Jones, Chris Johnson and Campbell Brown are also part of Seven’s footy team this season.