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Former AFL great turned outspoken critic Kane Cornes has caused a stir with a stinging clip of Sunday night’s NRL grand final.
Regarded by onlookers as one of the more brutal, taxing deciders in recent memory, the Penrith Panthers claimed a fourth straight premiership by outlasting the Melbourne Storm 14-6.
However, the high-octane affair didn’t impress Cornes, who told AFL Trade Radio on Monday morning that there was ‘not one highlight’ in the match, while also deeming rugby league a ‘shocking sport’.
“I’ve said this for a while now – I really admire the physicality of the players, how tough they are, all of that,” Cornes said.
“But tell me, was there one highlight? One single highlight in a whole game of NRL?
“There’s not even a full stadium there – it’s so repetitive.
“It would have rated its socks off, so don’t get me wrong… but not one highlight in the game of games for the whole season!”
Cornes’ comments quickly saw a torrent of critical responses on X, while rugby league commentator Andrew Voss delivered a stinging return serve on SEN’s Vossy & Brandy.
“I know people eat the wrong sort of mushrooms down there [in Victoria] from time to time, but you’ve had a bagful,” Voss said of Cornes and co-host Sam Edmund.
“You have deadest either ingested, inhaled or eaten bad mushrooms. They’re on something.
“I can’t sit through a game of AFL full stop, but that doesn’t mean I say that it’s a bad sport. But I thank God, or whoever God is, every day that I was born a rugby league man.
“Was it [the NRL grand final] a classic? No. But for tension, tension levels were off the needle all night.
“Kane’s on the mushrooms.”
NRL grand finals have notably tended to be far closer and more memorable than their AFL counterparts in recent years, with several famous encounters, including 2023’s Panthers comeback against the Brisbane Broncos and the controversial Sydney Roosters premiership win over the Canberra Raiders in 2019; while the 2015 decider between the North Queensland Cowboys and Broncos is regarded as one of the greatest deciders in rugby league history.
The AFL, meanwhile, saw its 2024 decider turn into a blowout with Brisbane defeating Sydney by 60 points, while four of the last six grand finals have seen victories by that margin or greater.
The Vossy & Brandy X account also hit back hard at Cornes, replying to a video of his comments with: “At least our Grand Final was competitive. Stick to blowing up about long-term contracts and speculating about trading VFL players Kaneo.”
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