Unpacking the spat between Kane Cornes and North Melbourne, and why Channel 7 may have the last laugh

Channel 7 knew what it was signing up for when it went all out to sign Kane Cornes. But despite his latest controversy, the network could still have the last laugh. Scott Gullan explains how.

Kane Cornes loves Stephen A. Smith, the controversial US sports commentator who at the moment is having a very public spat with LeBron James.

Fighting with the NBA’s greatest player is very good for the ESPN ratings and Smith is relishing having the story being all about him.

North Melbourne banning Cornes isn’t quite in the LeBron territory but it’s nirvana for the former Port Adelaide premiership player.

He has been very open in stating that the AFL media landscape needs to be more like the US where toes are stepped on every hour, opinions are generated to divide fans and controversy is a close companion at all times.

Kane Cornes is in a public spat with the Kangaroos.

Cornes has certainly followed through on that theory with Ch 7 and SEN as his main mouthpieces, ensuring his views are everywhere so it was only a matter of time where he’d run into some interference.

North aren’t the first club, and they certainly won’t be the last, who have been pissed with some of Cornes’ work.

He skates the line and sometimes falls the wrong side of it but it’s all part of his shtick. You either love him or loathe him, and that’s what Cornes wants.

When Seven decided to get serious about having footy shows again after relying just on the live broadcast for the past few years, the only person they wanted was Cornes.

They knew what they were getting when they wheeled out the large cheque to get him away from Channel 9 where he’d forged his reputation on Footy Classified and The Sunday Footy Show.

His take on North young gun Harry Sheezel was strong although it wasn’t anything groundbreakingly new. David King, his co-host on SEN breakfast, brought up the “cheap kicks” theory on Fox Footy a couple of weeks earlier.

But Cornes added plenty of mayonnaise on it, excitedly labelling the 20-year-old’s “stat-padding” as getting “Sheezeys”.

North Melbourne football boss Todd Viney’s rant caught Channel 7 by surprise. They’d fielded calls from several clubs expressing their displeasure about something Cornes had said this year and then worked a solution out.

They’d never heard a word from North.

The irony is the ban came about after Channel 7 requested an interview in the lead-up to Thursday night’s clash against Essendon with coach Alastair Clarkson to be done by his former premiership captain Luke Hodge and Cornes.

If anyone could handle trading barbs with Cornes in that format you’d think it would be Clarko.

But instead the Roos decided to go down the media ban avenue which has limited success. You hadn’t made it as a journo back in the 1990s if Denis Pagan hadn’t hit you with a ban.

The Roos hit back at Cornes on Wednesday. Picture: Michael Klein

Usually it would last a week, maybe two, before all was forgiven and you’d resume hostilities.

The problem for North is they don’t have a lot of leverage given they’re continually fighting for more relevancy, fighting for more spotlight, fighting to be in the headlines.

In the coming weeks the AFL and Channel 7 will be sitting down to sort out the last part of the fixture, from Rd 16 onwards.

Being the free-to-air broadcaster, Seven has a big say on where matches will fall over the last couple of months of the season.

So on top of the Roos most likely not being in finals contention come July, there will now be some Cornes media ban anger thrown into the equation when TV slots are being decided.

We know who’s going to win that battle. Get used to the Sunday afternoon graveyard shift Roos fans.

Originally published as Unpacking the spat between Kane Cornes and North Melbourne, and why Channel 7 may have the last laugh