Time On: Kane Cornes takes aim at Nick Daicos’ fitness levels

The AFL season is only two games old, but footy shock jock Kane Cornes has wasted no time taking aim at one of the AFL’s top players.

Time On is your wrap up of all the footy gossip and banter

Cornes takes aim at Daicos

Kane Cornes has questioned the pre-season preparation of one of the AFL’s top players, accusing Nick Daicos of not being fit enough to run out the first game of the season.

Daicos suffered severe cramps in his legs from the second quarter in the humid conditions of Sydney’s Engie Stadium on Sunday.

Daicos played out the game but struggled to have his usual impact in his team’s disappointing 52-point loss to GWS.

“I don’t care if you’re Nick Daicos, the best player in the game, you face criticism for not being prepared for the first game of the season, and that’s what happened yesterday,” Cornes said on SEN on Monday morning.

“He wasn’t prepared. That’s the facts of it.”

Nick Daicos battles cramp. Picture: Phil Hillyard

His co host David King was shocked by the criticism.

“I just think it’s a reflection of being the 9th of March in 28 degree heat,” King said.

“There’s no more a professional package than Nick Daicos. I see this guy train the house down every time you’re there (at Collingwood training). He is the pin up boy for professionalism.”

But Cornes persisted.

“He wasn’t prepared for an opening game on March 9 like he should’ve been. They’ve known this (start date) for ages. They didn’t play finals last year Collingwood, how many months have they got to get their players ready for this game?

“He wasn’t the only one but he was the poster boy for it yesterday, he just wasn’t prepared, and 100 per cent he has to face scrutiny for that.”

Cornes went on to suggest a theory for his Daicos claims.

“Maybe you get comfortable — who knows,” he said.

“Somewhere in the back of his mind — he knows he’s good — and maybe he didn’t put the work in that he has in the other off-seasons.”

Last season, Cornes took aim at number one pick Harley Reid when he cramped in his first game.

“If he wants to be the best, if he wants to be Nick Daicos, he’s got to have his training standards to (that) level,” Cornes said of Reid.

Let the battle begin

The TV footy wars will ignite in earnest on Monday night when they all put their best shows on display.

Channel 7’s new program The Agenda Setters will go up against Channel 9’s Footy Classified and Fox Footy’s On the Couch and AFL 360.

It’s been a hotly anticipated rivalry since Seven’s poaching raid of Nine’s hosts Craig Hutchison, Caroline Wilson and Kane Cornes for its new shows.

The three will appear tonight on the panel — following a protracted legal issue with Wilson’s contract — alongside another new Seven recruit, Nick Riewoldt.

Nine has already fired a shot after Footy Classified returned last week, with host Sam McClure opening the program with a pointed and spicy monologue.

The new look Footy Classified team of Jimmy Bartel, Matthew Lloyd, Sam McClure and Damian Barrett. Picture: Channel 9/Supplied

“There have never been more stories brewing in the build up to a footy season, meaning there have never been more reasons to watch the show that set the footy agenda for the best part of two decades.”

“... if all that wasn’t enough, well there’s no free to air footy on Saturdays,’’ McClure said.

It was a clear shot at Channel 7, who won’t be broadcasting any football on Saturdays, with Fox Footy the only station broadcasting AFL matches on Saturdays.

Riewoldt said during the week on his new Triple M breakfast show that the talk of rivalries was “juvenile” but try as he might to downplay it, there’s no doubt it’s real.

Riewoldt’s colleague and host Mick Molloy, asked: “They are trying to cast this as a Fox Footy versus Channel 7 (war)... Channel 9 have entered the fray. Where do you stand on all this? Do you bite? Do you get involved? Agenda Setters debuts on Monday night ... let the games begin!”

Riewoldt responded: “Some of it I find quite fun and good-natured banter between networks; some of it I find a bit juvenile. Like, c’mon, we’re talking about footy.”

Co-hosts turn on TJ over Djokovic gag order

As Nathan Brown put it, “the whole of Australia wants us to talk about it”, but there was one topic off limits when the Sunday Footy Show returned on Sunday.

Host Tony Jones was embroiled in an international storm of controversy during the Australian Open in January after he apologised to Novak Djokovic for offensive comments made during a live news segment.

Jones rejoined the panel of Brown, Matthew Lloyd, Damian Barrett and Rory Sloane, the replacement for Kane Cornes, but they had to relay the news that it was a taboo topic.

Instead they replayed a string of Jones’ gaffes including the infamous non-kiss with Bec Judd, which had also been banned, and previous tennis and football incidents.

“It’s disrespectful to the rest of the panel that everyone in Australia wants us to talk about it and we’re not allowed to talk about it,’’ Brown said.

They said Jones had gone to management to get the subject off the table but it’s believed a legal issue could be at play given the Serbian Council of Australia called for the Human Rights Commission to investigate.

Jones called for the team to “drop it” and they duly plonked a load of tennis balls on his head.

On Triple M’s Sunday Rub Brown elaborated and sympathised with Jones.

“We can’t talk about that, (it was) frosty, tense, aggressive,’’ Brown said.

“We weren’t allowed to, it came from the top.

“I thought that TJ copped it unfairly. We know he’s not that funny. I thought that pile on was really big and we can’t talk about it too much so I should probably say no comment.”

Originally published as Time On: Kane Cornes takes aim at Nick Daicos’ fitness levels