Footy greats turned TV commentators Kane Cornes and Dale Thomas in war of words over ‘the dumbest comments I’ve heard in a long while’

Polarising Channel Nine footy commentator Kane Cornes has has set off a spat with his Channel Seven counterpart Dale Thomas before he joins the rival network next year.

The Port Adelaide premiership winner has carved a successful and controversial career at Nine and SEN but recently announced he would be making the switch to Seven next season. 

Cornes has come under fire during the AFL finals after he was slammed for suggesting injured Port midfielder Zak Butters was ‘soft’ after the club was belted by Geelong in week one. 

Butters was subbed at halftime with a rib injury, with scans revealing bone bruising following the heavy defeat.

Cornes said Butters ‘wanted to be subbed or they subbed him out’, suggesting he lacked desire when the match was still in the balance. 

‘I think it’s a real challenge for Butters now – a lot of players are playing sore at this time of the year,’ Cornes said. ‘I think he had to push through that – his team needed him.

 ‘He has to really grit his teeth this week, yes it’s going to be sore. He can’t do any damage to it; it’s just putting up with the pain, and he needs a huge performance on Friday to respond.’

Channel Nine analyst and Port Adelaide premiership winner Kane Cornes has come under fire for his comments about Port star Zak Butters

Butters (left) was subbed out of Port Adelaide’s heavy loss to Geelong with a rib injury

Former Collingwood star Dale ‘Daisy’ Thomas has slammed Cornes for his comments, despite the fact they will be colleagues at Channel 7 next year

Footy analysts and former players have been lining up to lash Cornes for his comments, and Thomas described Cornes’ words as ‘complete bulls**t’ on Triple M’s Midweek Rub.

‘And if (Cornes) was sitting direct to me at any stage in front of a microphone or in front of me at the pub, I’d tell him that is the dumbest thing I’ve heard for a long while,’ Thomas said.

The former Carlton and Magpies star doubled down when he spoke to News Corp this week. 

‘There are weirdly times I agree with Kane but the position I’ve taken is to be supportive and backing the players and not lose sight of how hard it is to play,’ Thomas said. 

Butters was accused of lacking desire by Cornes, in comments that have been widely slammed

Cornes is not letting the criticism sway his view, though, and said Butters would be targeted this week in the club’s do-or-die elimination final against Hawthorn.

‘What about Butters this weekend? Port Adelaide said that he will play this weekend,’ SEN Breakfast host Tim Watson asked Cornes. 

‘We know that he’s had a knock to the ribs, but he’s been cleared of any serious damage to the ribs.

‘This is a man’s game. This is a brutal game. This is a final. Do you target him if you’re Hawthorn in any way?

‘Do you make a note of the fact that, ‘OK, this guy’s sore, if you get the opportunity…’. I’m not saying you go outside the rules, whack him, belt him or anything like that.

‘But do you make sure that any chance you get to tackle him you tackle him hard to the ground?’

The star Port Adelaide midfielder has been training this week and has been named to play despite the injury he sustained against Geelong

Cornes doubled down on his previous comments and said that Butters would be ‘vulnerable’ against the desperate Hawks. 

‘You don’t go out of your way to do it. You don’t hit him off the ball and risk getting a suspension,’ he said.

‘But if he’s there to be tackled, do you give it some extra oomph? Do you put your hand on him as you get up off the ground?

‘Steven May played against Adelaide early on in the year and he had genuinely broken ribs and he played on Taylor Walker … May in the first content went back and took an intercept mark.

‘I just thought there was an opportunity to go force or make some contact. They didn’t do that, and he started really well.

‘That’s the opportunity and Zak has shown that he’s probably just a little bit vulnerable with the off-the-ball stuff and you can get under his skin.

‘I think they’d be crazy not to do that in a final with this much significance on the line.’