Coaches “frustrated” with lack of player access: Cornes

Dual All-Australian Kane Cornes believes the power dictated by AFL players has gone too far and is starting to frustrate coaches across the competition.

Off the back of Melbourne players cancelling a pre-organised boot camp before Christmas, and prolonged periods of leave, the 2004 premiership player has explained how coaches don’t have enough access to their talent across the year.

“It has gone too far,” Cornes told SEN Breakfast.

“These players now, and I’m all for the pay increase, they deserve it because the game has never been better, but they’re getting far too much time off.

“I’ve spoken to a couple of coaches about it, and they’re really frustrated by how little access they have to their players.

“They get 8-to-10 weeks off at the end of the year depending on how long they’ve been in the system for, they get a further two-to-three weeks off at Christmas.

“There are three mandatory four-day breaks throughout the season. They have a dedicated day off and a dedicated afternoon off during the week.

“You add it all up, it’s 14-to-15 weeks off and I know the fans get frustrated about missed shots at goal and skill errors, that has to be the reason.

“Player power has definitely gone too far.”

Cornes also used the example of other athletes across the globe to epitomise how much downtime AFL players are afforded.

“If you spend anytime with elite level athletes going to the Commonwealth Games, they would be lucky to have one day off a year,” he said.

“The Australian Open, you reckon Rafa Nadal is not hitting a ball for 14 weeks of the year? I think it’s crazy.”

Catch up with Kane Cornes’ chat on SEN Breakfast with Garry Lyon and Tim Watson in the player below!