Kane Cornes labels Josh Rachele the ‘laughing stock of the competition’

Former Port Adelaide star Kane Cornes has given the Crows’ Josh Rachele both barrels after his celebration in Saturday night’s Showdown.

Former Port Adelaide player Kane Cornes turned the blowtorch on Adelaide’s Josh Rachele with a blistering take-down.

Rachele thrust himself into the spotlight in the lead up to Saturday night’s showdown contest when he repeatedly proclaimed that Port fans have “no teeth”, doubling down saying they “don’t have many teeth”.

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After kicking a goal in the second quarter, Rachele ran to the fence as he pointed to his teeth in celebration.

Cornes however didn’t see the funny side of it all and went scorched Earth on the 21-year-old, saying “you embarrassed yourself this week”, particularly when the Crows went on to lose 11.14 (80) to 8.10 (58) to snap a three-game winning streak in the fixture.

“To me it is not even a funny joke,” Cornes said on Channel 9’s Sunday Footy Show.

“If it was clever, if it was funny, okay there’s a bit of humour in this and it builds it up.

“And then he kicked a goal which was his one half decent moment in the game last night and goes over to the Port fans and does this.

“This is a guy who says he needs to put the celebrations away after he had iffy moments earlier in the year where he didn’t go hard enough.

The celebration has landed Rachele in the crosshairs. Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“You don’t like it when you do that and then you have a real critical moment in a Showdown, which is built on physicality and you shirk the issue.

“Not for the first time this year, Josh Rachele has got a real issue in his game where he struggles to accept physical contact.”
Cornes pointed out a moment minutes before he booted his goal where he was set to collect a bouncing ball but bailed out of contact as a Port Adelaide player attacked the ball.

“So when you do that and you set the tone with those comments and celebrate like that in the face of the opposition and you can produce a performance that has ten possessions and one tackle and a really ordinary moment in the middle in the ground and then you lose … you are now the laughing stock of the competition,” Cornes said.

“You have embarrassed yourself and you’re a laughing stock. Port Adelaide are laughing at him right now.”

Tony Jones wasn’t exactly buying the argument, asking: “Isn’t there also a case to mount that we want that sort of character in the game?”

Nathan Brown added: “Everything was fine, except when he pulled out.”

Kane Cornes has savaged Rachele. Photo: Channel 9

Cornes continued: “And he’s got to play better. That is not the first time he’s pulled out this year, he’s had a number of iffy moments.

“If I was him I would be earning some respect in the game with the way you go about it before getting ahead of yourself and doing that.

“Now the Hawthorn stuff, Hawthorn celebrating. Yeah, they are. I think that they celebrate together.

“There is a bit about me, me, me about Josh Rachele and he celebrates on his own. For me, Hawthorn are backing it up with their performance and they’re all in it together.

“You look at Ollie Wines after the game. Port Adelaide and the AFL world are laughing have him.”

Brown argued that Rachele was just giving Port Adelaide back some of their own medicine after previous Showdowns.

He asked: “Isn’t that what the Showdown is about?”

“Not when you can’t deliver,” Cornes replied.