‘Hypocrisy is unbelievable’: AFL radio show falls apart

Footy commentators David King and Kane Cornes have turned on each other in a heated confrontation as their show broke down.

Nathan Buckley and Kane Cornes. Photo: Michael Klein and Sarah Reed.

Kane Cornes and David King have traded blows in a heated radio segment that broke down on Friday morning.

The footy commentators have attracted headlines all week with their personal squabble overshadowing the booing saga that has surrounded Port Adelaide rising star Jason Horne-Francis.

The North Melbourne great and former Port Adelaide star have taken public shots at each other in recent days after Cornes criticised Kangaroos fans for “disgraceful” treatment of Horne-Francis when speaking on The Footy Show.

Despite the weekend’s game being on home soil, Horne-Francis was booed by the Adelaide Oval crowd every time he touched the ball in his team’s win over the Western Bulldogs - three weeks after he copped it from Collingwood fans at the MCG.

The situation reached boiling point on Friday when the pair locked horns on SEN radio.

The pair went at each other for 25 minutes over who is most responsible for the public booing Horne-Francis has received this year.

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The argument went off the rails when King called Cornes out for a mash-up of footage Cornes used on Footy Classified on Monday night.

King said the montage included audio of King last year saying Horne-Francis needed to “pull his head in” over an incident where the No. 1 draft pick was seen arguing with former teammate Todd Goldstein in the middle of a football game.

King said the audio from May, 2022, “misrepresented” him.

David King and Kane Cornes square off.

The pair repeatedly talked over the top each other in the extraordinary segment.

“You misrepresented the facts,” King said.

“Can I finish what I’m saying? The facts were that I spoke about that when he refused to speak to Todd Goldstein. Nobody from Port Adelaide had a problem with it then. I didn’t hear Ken Hinkley come out and say, ‘Hey listen, lets back off these 18-year-olds’.

“So it’s all about the jumper they wear. Ken wants to speak up for his player. I have no issue with that. If he wants to say I’m too harsh I have no issue with that. The fact that your producer couldn’t find anything I said from this year. It should have been alarm bells.”

King later also played a clip from last year of Cornes giving Horne-Francis a bake, where he said the teenager “gave up” and “didn’t try”.

Cornes said at the time those accusations were “the worst thing you can be criticised for as a player”.

King said it was blatantly wrong for Cornes to try to come across as “squeaky clean” with claims he is Horne-Francis’ No. 1 supporter.

“You’ve gone and done the same thing,” Cornes said.

“The hypocrisy of this is unbelievable. You’ve just had a crack at me for playing historical audio and you’ve done exactly the same.”

The segment went further off the rails when the pair began arguing about King’s ability to listen to the entirety of Cornes’ three-hour breakfast show from last year where he made the critical comments about Horne-Francis.

Kane Cornes deleted his post shortly after.

Towards the end of the argument Cornes said he will continue to use the “#icebaths” term he has used on social media when criticising North Melbourne for taking internal disciplinary action against Horne-Francis for what he says was a simple case of the prodigious talent skipping a post-match recovery ice bath.

Cornes had earlier this week deleted a tweet in which he responded to a news story about King’s comments by posting: “#icebath”.

Horne-Francis’ debut season was filled with rocky moments, no moment bigger than when he was dropped ahead of what would have been his first game back in South Australia.

He was also called out by interim coach Leigh Adams and senior players for failing to complete his proper ice baths and recovery.

He eventually confirmed he had made a request to be traded out of the club before the 2022 Trade Period.

Jason Horne-Francis was everywhere in the fourth quarter. Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

King has repeatedly said Cornes’ cheeky use of the hashtag has incensed North Melbourne fans and resulted in anger being turned on Horne-Francis.

“If you use hashtag icebaths again, that’s the most juvenile thing I’ve ever heard,” he said on Friday.

King also said he simply wants Cornes to take a percentage of blame for why the public booing of Horne-Francis has got out of control.

“You can be upset about that. You’re a big boy. You’ll get over it,” King said.

“If you continue to troll, you lose the handle. You start arguing with fools.”

Cornes said from conversations he has had with Port Adelaide that Horne-Francis will himself speak publicly about the situation in coming days.

Nathan Buckley and Kane Cornes. Photo: Michael Klein and Sarah Reed.

Earlier this week, Nathan Buckley dropped a truth bomb on Cornes, during another frosty radio exchange on Monday morning.

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley was furious after the game and called out the behaviour of those fans and said people within the game “need to have a look at themselves”.

“It shouldn’t have anything to do with the media or the personalities within it,” Buckley said on SEN Breakfast.

“It shouldn’t have anything to do with you. It shouldn’t have anything to do with Kingy, who has North Melbourne blood coursing through his veins.

“And you, who has Port Adelaide blood coursing through your veins. In the end you’re going to be biased towards the connections you have.

“And in between it all, you have this kid, who Ken Hinkley rightfully says has every right to develop and grow as a footballer and in his own time and in his own way.

Originally published as ‘Hypocrisy is unbelievable’: AFL radio show falls apart