Selector Kane Cornes has spoken on several controversial omissions from this year’s All-Australian squad.
The squad of 44 dropped on Monday evening, with the final team to be selected on Wednesday night.
NO TIM TARANTO, MAX GAWN OR NIC MARTIN: AFL RELEASES 44-MAN ALL-AUSTRALIAN SQUAD
Cornes is only one of 10 selectors and did not have the final say on any players picked or not picked.
He gave his thoughts on Gryan Miers, Tim Taranto, Nic Newman and others, and also explained the selection of Patrick Cripps, who was included in the squad.
Gryan Miers (Geelong)
“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of recognising the forwards in this year’s team, there’s a number of them… Miers kicked seven goals (in 2023),” Cornes told SEN Sportsday.
“He had a very good season, but he’s playing a small forward role and kicked seven goals (but 41 goal assists). I’ve got no issue with him being left out of the side.
“But I understand the commentary around it.”
Tim Taranto (Richmond)
“There’s always good players who miss out. We thought there were midfielders in front of him, that’s the reality of it.
“You can look at his numbers as a lot of people have done, or you can look at his numbers a little bit closer, as we tended to do in the meeting this week.
“He had a very strong season… there’s always good players who miss out and he was one of them according to the panel.”
Nic Newman (Carlton)
“You might be surprised to know the footy club didn’t nominate Newman. That was the case and if you’re not nominated by your club, it makes it hard.
“When the AFL goes to the club and says, ‘who is worthy of All-Australian selection this year?’, and you can nominate as many as you want… for him to not get mentioned by his own club says I think a little bit about his season, particularly the start to his season.”
Adam Cerra (Carlton)
“Adam Cerra was probably in the Tim Taranto boat… he missed four games as well which probably hurt him.”
Sam Taylor (GWS)
“He wasn’t eligible because he didn’t play enough games.”
Patrick Cripps (Carlton) (selected)
“He had a slow start, as did a few players in the squad.
“If you look at Carlton’s turnaround and what coincided with that, I think Cripps voted in seven out of nine games from the coaches in that patch.
“In my personal view, I thought his influence over Carlton's turnaround was really strong. Jacob Weitering was the same…”