Former Carlton and Collingwood star Daisy Thomas has bit back at Kane Cornes once again as the war of words continues.
Cornes, the former Port Adelaide 300-gamer turned media personality, drew ire from across the AFL when he suggested Richmond star Tim Taranto “didn’t influence games” and wasn’t in the top 150 players in the game.
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It’s not the first time he has hit out at the midfielder, labelling the decision by the club to sign him and Jacob Hopper as “a horrific deal”.
Cornes was slammed by other members of the media and by Taranto’s Tigers coach Damien Hardwick, who said “what he does is he says it to get clicks”.
But Cornes is not one to lay down and take criticism, doubling down and taking aim at AFL media figures, including Thomas for allegedly rehashing his old hot takes.
“I’m sick of some lazy members of the AFL media. I’m sick of AFL figures having opinions off the back of other AFL figures,” he said on Footy Classified on Monday night.
“For the likes of ‘Daisy’ (Dale) Thomas and Tony Shaw, who work part-time and they don’t have to do a lot of on-air time, for their big opinions this week to be something I said 12 months ago on SEN SA is embarrassing.
“Get up early, watch the games, work hard, and stop having opinions off other people’s opinions. If I employed these people, I’d want my money back.”
They’re comments Thomas wasn’t about to take lying down.
Speaking on Triple M’s Midweek Rub, Thomas hit back at Cornes’ “ramblings”.
“I questioned his comments, and it may have been 12 months ago, but they’re still factually, statistically, completely incorrect,” Thomas said.
“We got asked about them by Jay-Z (Jay Clark) on Sunday, got asked about them on Monday, so I don’t think he needs to flatter himself with the fact that I’m just purely sifting through his crap and what he’s saying to have a hot take.
“It wasn’t a hot take, it was purely just a discussion in and around saying that Tim Taranto isn’t in the top 150 players is completely, factually and statistically incorrect.
“For (Cornes) to come out and say ‘I’m sick of these media types having opinions on other media types’ opinions’, what is going through his brain at the moment?
“That is the entire industry, that’s a space that he lives in probably more so than any of us.
“The issue I have with Kane, and it wasn’t always because I think there was a time when he’d make a big statement and if he was wrong, he’d happily put his hand up and fall in behind and say ‘every now and then I get it wrong and I’m happy to continue with it.
“At the moment, his lack of want to put his hand up and admit that he’s got things wrong, this is clearly one of those situations.
“He fell in behind the Jack Ginnivan pile-on, he started the one with Jason Horne-Francis and wouldn’t put his hand up and say he was any part of that.
“The only thing this does to Kane Cornes is start to damage what people think of his credibility and his statements.”
Damian Barrett, who co-hosts the Sunday AFL Footy Show on Channel 9 alongside Cornes, said he didn’t believe that he’d say something purely for a click.
But Thomas hit back at the aspersion that it he was a “part-time” member of the media.
“That’s factually incorrect,” Thomas said. “‘I don’t watch enough football’ — well he obviously has no idea how I prepare for my weekends of football because I watch so much more football than he’d ever cast an eye on.”
Thomas also hit out at Cornes’ comments about Taranto, saying that instead of putting his hand up and accepting he was wrong, he “ducked and weaved”.
Joey Montagna said it wasn’t even like they were rehashing an old statement as Clark had asked the pair about Taranto after his starring performance for the Tigers on Saturday.
Thomas said that they would “not be doing our job correctly” if they let the comments slide.
Cornes was getting hit from all sides on the issue with the Tigers coach laughing off the criticism to defend his player.
“I know Kane really well and you guys know how the media work,” Hardwick said.
“He doesn’t generally believe that comment, but what he does is he says it to get clicks. That’s how the media works. Surprise.
“He (Taranto) is an outstanding player. Those two boys that we brought in (Jacob) Hopper and Taranto, we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we need to be – or more importantly we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we want to be – without those two boys. They’ve been wonderful for our footy club.”
Cornes hit back on Sunday morning however.
“I’ve never said anything for the sake of it, I’ve never said anything to get a click,” Cornes said.
“I don’t get paid per click, I couldn’t care less if you click on it or not.
“I was a little bit surprised because I spoke to him yesterday (Saturday) morning and we had that discussion. He rang me. I was surprised after the game he went public with that. But we had a good discussion.
“I said to him it was part of an extended chat on a radio show on a Friday morning that would have lasted five minutes. If you go and read the one headline which he would have done, and not listened to the whole conversation in its full context, then yes you could say that was said for clicks.
“One of his great strengths is his loyalty and support for his players, which we’ve seen for a number of years, and I admire that about him.
“It was a good discussion. We had a good chat, in the end we chatted about our families … he is a premiership teammate, he was one of my favourite teammates, I’ve got so much respect for him.
“I was just surprised it’s blown up like this after the conversation we had.”
Last weekend, Tony Shaw said Cornes called out comments from May last year where he said Port Adelaide should try to get Hopper and Taranto.
