Ex-Port Adelaide captain Dom Cassisi calls out Kane Cornes over criticism of AFL players

A former teammate has taken aim at outspoken media personality Kane Cornes, revealing he responded to criticism “worse than anyone else” during his playing career. Watch it here.

Former Port Adelaide captain Dom Cassisi has pointed out the hypocrisy in ex-teammate Kane Cornes’ criticism of Roo Harry Sheezel given Cornes took criticism “worse than anyone” during his playing days.

Cornes was banned from interviewing North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson last week off the back of his strong comments on Sheezel and fellow Roos player Jy Simpkin.

Dom Cassisi has called out former teammate Kane Cornes.

Speaking on Channel 7’s online Two Team Town show, Cassisi said he couldn’t believe Cornes criticises players so frequently after seeing how he’d reacted when he was younger.

The member of Port’s football committee, who also does commentary for Triple M, said Cornes’ comments “probably did get a little bit too personal for a young player.”

“Knowing Kane, I was drafted in the same year as him, I was with him every day and us guys understand that if someone said something about Kane’s game he took it worse than anyone,” Cassisi said.

“He would literally struggle to come to the club, he wouldn’t talk to anyone. He would be flat.

“So we sort of look at it and go ‘what you are doing to this kid you couldn’t really take yourself when someone criticised you’”.

Kane Cornes and Jay Schulz chair Dom Cassisi from the field. Picture: Sarah Reed.

Cornes criticised Harry Sheezel for what he called “stat padding”.

Cassisi said he and fellow Power teammates laugh off many of the media pundit’s criticisms because of what they know about him as a player.

“For us who are close to him, we sort of laugh it off a bit because it is like ‘you struggled with that and you are doing it to this kid’, which doesn’t really stack up,” he said.

“Because Kane struggled with it so much, and he has spoken publicly about his anxiety, you do go ‘how can you inflict that on other people’ – but that is the path that he has gone down.

“And so maybe to all the players out there … maybe take it with a pinch of salt.”

Cornes has conceded that he responded badly to criticism as a player and that he had stat-padded in games but his “coaches challenged me to get that out of my game which is exactly what I was urging Alastair Clarkson to do to Harry Sheezel”.

Cassisi, who was drafted in the same year as Cornes in 2000, also said he thought the Roos banning his former teammate was the wrong move and they had “to take a bit of the higher ground”.