Former Port Adelaide participant turned media persona Kane Cornes has turned the blowtorch on two gamers over their present bodily state.
Cornes has by no means been afraid to ship a bit of his thoughts to the taking part in group and on Monday evening it was two Essendon gamers who copped it.
Watch each match of each spherical of the 2023 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
Bombers forwards Jake Stringer and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti copped the wrath from the previous midfielder over how they appeared throughout pre-season coaching.
Stringer missed the membership’s pre-season match in opposition to Gold Coast with hamstring tightness and also will miss the opening sport of the season.
For Tipungwuti, he returned to the membership after a short-lived retirement that noticed him grasp up the boots final 12 months.
Despite that, Cornes delivered each barrels to the gamers of a staff that many predict will end within the decrease half of the ladder.
“I’m strong on the fact that Jake Stringer turned up day one of preason unfit and out of shape,” Cornes mentioned earlier than including “no surprise”.
“It’s no surprise that he has been ruled out for round 1 and has had an interrupted pre-season.
“Tipungwuti is a great story and we hope it goes well, but to me once again the eye would tell you that he looks out of shape.
“And if you are not in shape Brad Scott as a new coach, and Zach Merrett as a new captain, says to those players you’re not eligible for selection until you’re fit.
“Because that’s what Chris Scott would do with Patrick Dangerfield and they win a premiership. It doesn’t matter if it’s mid-season and you do a six-week block of training, until you hit fitness and body shape requirements you’re not eligible for selection.
“They’ve said they’re not in the finals mix, I don’t see why there’s nothing to gain by setting a harder standard at Essendon.”
Bombers legend Matthew Lloyd backed up Cornes’ remarks and mentioned Tipungwuti at the moment doesn’t appear like a “match fit AFL player”.
Stringer has lengthy been touted as an AFL sport changer, however has copped criticism all through his profession for failing to ship on his talents.
He used that criticism within the second half of the 2022 season to ship a career-best patch after a 7kg bodily transformation.
In a frank chat together with his non-public coach Jack Kelly, Stringer conceded it was a sacrifice he wanted to make to succeed in higher heights and settle for assistant coach Blake Caracella’s problem to play extra midfield time.
“I knew at some stage I was going to come unstuck because I’d done so much running that I hadn’t done before,” Stringer instructed the How They Train podcast.
“It was always going to happen, but I knew I had to do that to set myself up to get to the place I needed to get to, if that makes sense?
“That’s where my mindset shifted.”
Unfortunately Stringer is again within the gun forward of the 2023 season with pundits lining as much as ship photographs if he as soon as once more fails to fireplace.
McDonald-Tipungwuti, initially from the Tiwi Islands, retired in May final 12 months after solely months earlier taking private depart from the membership.
Rumours of a possible comeback surfaced through the Trade Period in October and regardless of curiosity from Fremantle, he inked a one-year deal to return to Essendon.
He final performed throughout spherical 21 in 2021.
McDonald-Tipungwuti made his AFL debut in 2016, coinciding with 34 previous and current Bombers receiving season-long suspensions from the membership’s controversial dietary supplements saga.
He shortly reached cult determine standing, occurring to be Essendon’s main goalkicker in 2020 and kicking 30 or extra majors in three separate seasons.
McDonald-Tipungwuti guarantees to be a big addition for the Bombers, who struggled to search out dependable scoring choices behind membership champion Peter Wright in 2022.
Source: www.news.com.au
