Kane Cornes, Alastair Clarkson fire more shots in escalating war of words

The war of words between North Melbourne and Kane Cornes hit a fresh low before the Roos’ agonising defeat on Thursday night.

Kane Cornes and Kangaroos coach Alastair Clarkson have both hit back hard in the escalating feud between the outspoken commentator and the North Melbourne footy club.

After losing five straight matches, the under fire Roos fought back from a four-goal deficit to level the scores against Essendon on Thursday night before suffering an agonising three-point loss, 9.11 (65) to 9.8 (62).

But plenty of the attention before the game was how Cornes would respond to his blacklisting from the AFL battlers earlier in the week.

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The Kangaroos made the extraordinary move of announcing they would refuse to engage with Cornes after the club accused the polarising media personality of “bullying behaviour” and “vindictive attacks” on the club and its players.

Kangaroos football boss Todd Viney criticised Cornes’ media commentary at a press conference on Wednesday, revealing the club had declined a request for Cornes to be part of an interview with Clarkson for Thursday night’s game against Essendon.

So there was plenty of interest in how Channel 7 would handle the scandal for the game and the network immediately got on the front foot from the start of its coverage.

Kane Cornes and Hamish McLachlan during Thursday night's introduction. Photo: Channel 7

“We’ve got a debutant for the Kangaroos and you’ve been blacklisted by North Melbourne Cornesy,” Hamish McLachlan said from outside Marvel Stadium in his introduction.

Cornes replied: “I have. We’re outside. We can’t get inside, which is disappointing.

“I was looking forward to asking Alastair Clarkson some tough questions, I think the club needs to answer those.

“But unfortunately they’ve gone down this route.”

The station then showed a series of clips showing Cornes’ strong North criticism, including that Clarkson was the wrong fit to coach the club, it had overpaid players and his demand to see progress and improvement from the AFL battlers.

Alastair Clarkson also made his feelings towards Cornes clear. (Photo by Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

He has also been particularly critical of 20-year-old Roos star Harry Sheezel.

After the montage, Cornes was asked if he had any regrets about his comments.

“Not really. I think that was all reasonably strong criticism, but I think it was fair,” he said.

“This is a club that’s won nine games in the last four seasons, so they would understand that with this game and with underperformance, comes some strong scrutiny.

“That’s what they’ve received and it’s a little bit disappointing that they’ve taken this route because I think as a club, they need to stand up and answer some hard questions.”

Pushed on whether he was surprised at being shut out by the club, Cornes replied: “I’m not surprised. I would have loved the opportunity to go in there and I think it’s unfortunate that the North fans don’t get to hear the responses to some of that.

Young star Harry Sheezel has been one of Cornes’ main targets. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)

“And I think strong clubs stand up in times of need and when times are tough.

“It’s very easy to run away so I’m disappointed and I think they’ve been poorly advised in this.”

Cornes went on to say he didn’t feel he had any reason to be concerned about his critique of the players, but did concede he would back off if he became aware a player had been “mentally affected” by his commentary.

The Port Adelaide premiership player was also asked by Nick Riewoldt if he had any plans to change his outspoken ways and had a fairly predictable response.

“I think you’re always considered aren’t you?” he said.

The Kangaroos showed some overdue fight on Thursday night. (Photo by Josh Chadwick/Getty Images)

“You (Riewoldt) sat in those production meetings, nothing you say is off the cuff, you don’t say anything you don’t believe in.

“You hope that you’ve got the information to back it up and like you argued with me and like Hodgey (Luke Hodge) would argue with me, then I’m more than happy to have that debate.

“I think that’s what drives the opinion in this game and I think North would expect that and I’m disappointed they weren’t up for that.

“But it may have been a tactic for tonight.”

The network then played an interview between former Hawthorn champion Hodge and Clarkson that took place around an hour before the opening bounce.

The Kangaroos have made another poor start to the season. (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Without going into the details behind his attack, the four-time premiership winning coach had a stinging rebuke for Cornes.

“They say those that live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, so I know a little bit about Kane’s history,” Clarkson told Channel 7.

“Some of the things he was saying about Jy (Simpkin) and ‘Sheez’, I just think – especially from the host broadcaster and who is covering this game tonight – this isn’t shared across the football world, but I’ve got a view there should be a relatively good balance.

“Particularly when you’re talking about the players, they’re the product of the game, they’re the guys on the field and in the trenches with their mates trying to fight for their side.

“When the line gets crossed, we know that there’s critique in the game, we’ve been copping it for 20 years.

North captain Jy Simpkin has also been called out by Cornes. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

“You know, especially as a coach, when these things happen we just have to cop it on the chin.

“I think it’s a good indication of our stability as a football club. This was a club decision from the board right through to the football department that we need to look after our people and we just think it was untoward.”

Asked if he felt Cornes would back off or just be further motivated to continue clipping the club, Clarko said: “That’ll be up to Kane to work out how he goes about it.”

On the field, the Bombers looked like they were cruising in the second term before the Kangas sprung to life, kicking five goals to one in the third to trail by just one point heading into the final quarter.

In a tight final term, the two teams managed just one goal apiece as Essendon hung on.

North debutant Finnbar Marley took a strong mark and had a shot on goal in the dying stages, but sprayed his set shot to the left.

Originally published as Kane Cornes, Alastair Clarkson fire more shots in escalating war of words