Cornes calls out “disaster” moments that cost Port an AFLW win and the lack of scrutiny that followed
Kane Cornes has called out what he believes to have been a horrific sequence of play that cost Port Adelaide the win in their AFLW clash with Gold Coast last weekend.
Leading by six points, kicking with a clear breeze and having the ball marked inside 50 with two minutes to play, the Power coughed it all up to concede an easy transition goal.
Cornes has called out the decision making from Port Adelaide player Julia Teakle, given any score would have likely sealed the win.
“I’ve had a deep dive into one game on the weekend … I’m going to put my hand up because I haven’t watched a whole heap of AFLW. I get fatigued at the end of the AFL season and it hasn’t captured me,” the Power great told SEN’s Sportsday.
“But it has captured my family, certainly my 14-year-old son, he’s a member of Port Adelaide’s AFLW team, he loves it, I took him to Alberton on Saturday for that game against Gold Coast and that’s where my focus goes to today.
“It was a disaster. It was the worst four minutes of football from an elite sporting team that you would have seen.
“I watched it in real time and I went back and watched it again today.
“So this is what happened – Port Adelaide had a one-point lead at three-quarter time and they’re kicking with a three-goal breeze in the last quarter. They get out to a 12-point lead with four minutes and 30 (seconds) left in the game.
“Gold Coast goes down and kicks a goal into the breeze. There’s four minutes to go. That reduces the lead to six.
“Now, there’s a few minutes of play where nothing happens and no one scores, eventually Port Adelaide transitions the ball from D50, Justine Mules finds Julia Teakle, she marks the ball inside 50 and she’s 35 metres out on a pretty severe angle and at this point and there’s 2 minutes 14 on the clock.
“They lead by six points and they have the ball 35 metres out with a three-goal breeze behind their backs and instead of going back, taking as much time off the clock as you can, and having a pretty simple shot for goal in terms of just scoring anything in general to give Port a two-score lead with well under two minutes to go, she sprints up after taking the mark, she tries to hook the ball around off one step across her body to find a teammate at the top of the goal square and the ball gets smothered.
“Gold Coast then transitions the ball from deep inside Port Adelaide’s forward 50 through the middle of the ground. As they get to the middle of the ground, three Port players miss a simple tackle and Gold Coast transitions the ball right from D50 and they go coast to coast and Gold Coast eventually kick a freak goal to level the scores with 1 minute 40 to go.
“It was as bad a 40 seconds as you’ve seen from any football team ever, let alone from those desperately wanting to be highly paid full-time athletes.
“The game ends in a draw. It leaves Port Adelaide 17th on the AFLW ladder with just one win. The club has only two wins in its history.”
With the new Collective Bargaining Agreement raising the average pay of AFLW players to $82,000 by the end of 2027 and the league’s likely leap to full-time competition imminent, Cornes wonders whether the game is also ready for the scrutiny and critiquing the comes with that.
“What has the fallout been? Nothing. Concerningly nothing. Where are we going to get to with AFLW if no one questions why Teakle didn’t know to milk the clock? Has the team ever practiced leading a game late? Does the coach place enough emphasis on scenario training, because it didn’t look like it,” he said.
“Has anyone questioned the three missed tackles in the middle of the ground. Has anyone questioned why the players look absolutely cooked in the last quarter – are they fit enough?
“And if anyone did question it like I am now, are the players ready for it? That’s the question. Is the AFLW competition ready for critiques like this over a disastrous result?
“Every game is live on TV, they want more games and higher pay, and I get all of that. I think it has been an excellent addition to the code, but we don’t see any fallout to poor performance.
“Are the players ready for it? Why hasn’t there been any fallout from that?
“Essendon lose to West Coast on the weekend. Any fallout for that?”
Essendon’s loss to the Eagles, who sit 16th with a percentage of 45.3, put their top eight spot in danger with games against Carlton and Gold Coast (away) to come.