Nathan Buckley skewers Kane Cornes in icy radio exchange

Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley has dropped bombs on Kane Cornes and David King after their war of words exploded.

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

Nathan Buckley has dropped a truth bomb on Kane Cornes during a frosty radio exchange on Monday morning.

The pair were discussing Port Adelaide rising star Jason Horne-Francis during their SEN Breakfast show when it suddenly began to get very awkward as the conversation shifted to a Collingwood player.

The Magpies legend pulled Cornes up for comments he has made recently in light of the ugly booing saga that now surrounds the 19-year-old.

Despite the 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 on Saturday — three weeks after he copped it from Collingwood fans at the MCG.

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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”.

The saga took a dramatic turn on Sunday when Cornes scorched North Melbourne supporters over their treatment of the former No. 1 draft pick.

Kangaroos great King fired back at Cornes on Sunday night calling out the footy shock jock for ”rubbish” comments about Horne-Francis’ messy departure from the Kangaroos.

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

The war of words roared again on Monday morning with Buckley calling out both Cornes and King.

“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.

“He is a prodigious talent. He has got rough edges. And everyone’s going to have an opinion on that. You’re entitled to your opinion and you can question a guy around his professionalism and how he goes about it and whether you think he’s playing well or whether you think he’s having a crack. But eventually it does take a personal toll.

“I understand a lot of sides to it. I don’t think it’s due to one thing or another. When emotions get involved logic goes out the window.”

He went on to say the comments by King and Cornes had inflamed the situation.

“Hinkley can see Horne-Francis is 100 per cent committed to the club. North Melbourne never felt that. So I can see it from both sides,” Buckley said.

Jason Horne-Francis was booed at Gather Round. Pic: Michael Klein

“And so what we do on the outside is we speculate and then it filters through the masses. And then the masses get emotionally involved in it and that’s where the nostrils get flared.”

Cornes minutes earlier responded to King’s criticism, declaring the “vitriol” from North Melbourne fans began well before the Port Adelaide great had begun to criticise the club for failing to properly care for Horne-Francis.

“Very selective there from Kingy,” Cornes said.

“From the moment Jason Horne-Francis requested a trade, there were a lot of North Melbourne fans calling him a mumma’s boy. And doing all of that. His former teammates, including Cameron Zurhaar were very critical on social media about the fire sale and all of that before I said anything about an ice bath.

“The vitriol coming from North Melbourne will have started without me stirring the pot, to use Kingy’s reference. I just wanted to say that. I think the North Melbourne fans have got selective memories and David King is one of those - way before there were any reference to ice baths.

“Just another one on North Melbourne, they’re amazing how they love to reflect on this. This is a club that’s won 11 games in four years, and yes I use the ice baths as a reference, but the way they treated and managed their best and most talented player since Wayne Carey, they need to absolve some blame in that.

“How many times did you see a North Melbourne figure put their arms around Jason Horne-Francis like Ken Hinkley did? I didn’t see it.

“North Melbourne can escape any blame and they can ignore the treatment they gave one of their best players and the lack of development they put in and time and care and love that he needed. It wasn’t just the ice baths of course, but that was just a reference point to show how poorly they managed their best player since Wayne Carey.”

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

Kane Cornes deleted his post shortly after.

Cornes said his Twitter “blew up” after his comments on Sunday.

Former Brisbane Lions player Mitch Robinson was among those to take a shot at Cornes.

“My god, what did you expect? You all continuously talk about JHF every show and banter through socials which fuels the narrative,” Robinson posted on Twitter.

“No one would care otherwise, him moving clubs would’ve been yesterdays news. Common sense, maybe stop giving it air time & let the kid play.”

Meanwhile, the radio segment between Buckley and Cornes got particularly icy when Buckley highlighted Cornes’ public criticism of Magpies forward Jack Ginnivan last year.

Cornes famously criticised Ginnivan six games into his AFL career after he featured in a club video walking around with a camera celebrating after his team’s victory.

Cornes told Ginnivan to “stop carrying on” and said he needed to learn about winning in a “humble way”.

Buckley on Monday said: “So Jack Ginnivan last year was one you went really hard on early and I defended him to you by trying to point out this is still a young bloke trying to find himself.

David King and Kane Cornes square off.

“Jason Horne-Francis is the same.”

Cornes responded by admitting he made a mistake in how hard his criticism was, but maintains he made a relevant point.

“He would have been a lightning rod for publicity any way because he was getting under the skin of opposition,” Cornes said.

“There was criticism about staging for free kicks. He had a look about him. That handful of players we get through the generations that would have attracted that scrutiny and he’s a different character. So that would have come regardless of that.

“Since those comments I’ve been pretty supportive of Jack Ginnivan over the journey. But would I change my criticism of him? No.”

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 also shared a heated on-field clash with Todd Goldstein before eventually confirming 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 said on Sunday Cornes needs to look at himself for pouring fuel on the fire.

“What were the origins of this? You’ve got to cut to the chase. Kane Cornes put this on the radar with the rubbish about ice baths, that he was sacked from North Melbourne for not taking an ice bath,” King said on Fox Footy’s First Crack.

“And that flared the nostrils of the North Melbourne fans, and they’ve been going backwards and forth at each other for six months, and unfortunately Jason Horne-Francis has been the sole victim in all of this.

“It’s built a tension and a passion and a rage that wasn’t really there. I think the North Melbourne fans were happy to part, ‘alright, it doesn’t always work out for every player that gets drafted, he wants to go home, get the big deal’.

“We sat on (AFL) 360 last year and we said you know what if you want to go, go, we can work on getting the next person in the door and we’ll go again. No-one’s bigger than the footy club, you go again. But the rage was started the moment hashtag ice bath was put out there.

“So now when he does something, the fanbase goes beauty, we’ve got an angle. Now the Kangaroos fans weren’t there to boo on the weekend, so you can’t necessarily blame those people who I think have been targeted unfairly by those looking to make excuses.

“Jason Horne-Francis is going to be a star of the competition, we all know that. I don’t think it’d be as big a deal if the last six months of to-and-fro hadn’t taken place.”

Originally published as Nathan Buckley skewers Kane Cornes in icy radio exchange