‘Idiot’: Kane Cornes fires shots at NRL grand final ‘disaster’

There has been a fierce backlash after AFL great Kane Cornes took a swipe at the NRL Grand Final “disaster”.

Kane Cornes got the backlash he wanted when he took a swipe at the NRL Grand Final “disaster” on Monday morning.

The outspoken footy commentator called the rival code a “shocking sport” while discussing the Bunker video referee drama that threatened to overshadow Penrith’s epic fourth-consecutive NRL premiership.

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The Panthers were at their clinical best when choking the Storm out of the contest before holding on for a comfortable 14-6 win at Accor Stadium.

The bonkers first half where the ball was in play without any breaks for more than 35 minutes took the wind out of the sails of both teams and it showed when the Storm failed to fire a shot in attack in the second half, other than the moment centre Jack Howarth was controversially denied a try.

The grand final exploded when video replays screened by Channel 9 appeared to show Howarth did get the ball down over the try line.

Kane Cornes went again while Jarome Luai celebrates. Photo: Instagram, @jaromeluai and Twitter, Footy on Nine.

However, the NRL swiftly responded after the game by releasing secret vision — only available to the officials in the bunker — that showed the ball was held up by Penrith defenders.

In the end it didn’t matter with the Panthers outclassing the Storm convincingly.

Cornes clearly wasn’t impressed by the spectacle.

Speaking on the AFL’s official trade radio network, Cornes said there was not a single highlight to take away from the game.

“That was a disaster. It’s just a shocking sport,” Cornes said.

“I’ve said this for a while now. I really admire the physicality of the players and how tough they are. All of that. But tell me if there was one highlight? One single highlight in a whole game of NRL. There’s not even a full stadium there. It’s so repetitive.”

He went on to say he only watched the second half after filming Channel 9’s Footy Furnace.

“It would have rated its socks off so don’t get me wrong,” he said.

“After the Furnace, I was watching the second half, but not one highlight in the game of games for the whole season.”

Trade Radio host Sam Edmund, from SEN, said he was “staggered” the game had not been sold out.

The game played out in front of 80,156 spectators — the smallest crowd at a Homebush decider since 2017. It was reported in the hours before kick-off there were still tickets available.

The greatest team in modern rugby league. Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images.

Cornes also scoffed at the low-scoring 14-6 final scoreboard.

Edmund responded: “I think to be fair this game was always going to be a defensive grind.

“They’re both strong defensive teams. Which, as we’ve seen in our game, can be absorbing.”

Cornes, presumably as he intended, stirred up the hornets’ nest with his comment.

Rugby league journalist Tony Adams — known as “The Mole” — wrote on Twitter: “Who are these f***ing idiots”.

The official account of SEN’s Sydney breakfast show responded: “At least our Grand Final was competitive. Stick to blowing up about long-term contracts and speculating about trading VFL players Kaneo”.

Sport commentator Brendan Johnson wrote: “Bad news lads professional imbecile Kane Cornes doesn’t like Rugby League, we may as well pack it in now”.

It comes after Bulldogs cult hero Willie Mason last week bashed the AFL grand final as a “boring” spectacle.

The Lions blew the Swans away in last week’s decider at the MCG in a contest that was over before the half time siren.

Mason said he wanted to leave the stadium after the first 25 minutes, saying the day as a whole left him “bored s***less”.

“It was probably the worst major event I’ve ever been to,” Mason said on the Levels Network podcast with former Eels star Justin Horo.

“It was just boring. There were 100,000 people there and 25 minutes in I’m thinking this is boring.

“Maybe it was what the Swans dished up. Very underwhelming. If I speak to most people that were down there it was very underwhelming. If I was going off just as an event. Terrible.”

The footy world now has to wait until March until the next code war erupts.

Originally published as ‘Idiot’: Kane Cornes fires shots at NRL grand final ‘disaster’