Breaking Barriers: How Kane Cornes Defied Doubters to Become a Media Sensation

The ‘blunt’ statement from Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly, which inspired Kane Cornes to pursue a lucrative career in AFL media, has been shared. Before deciding to pursue a career in journalism, Cornes played 300 games for Port Adelaide. He has since found success as a Channel 9 and SEN analyst.

Given how well-liked Cornes is in the football community, it was revealed last week that he was leaving to join Channel 7’s coverage in the upcoming season. Although Cornes’ opinions are known to split people, his supporters and peers are beginning to recognise that most of the time he’s right.

Speaking with Mark Howard on the most recent installment of LISTNR’s “The Howie Games podcast,” Cornes disclosed details about his career in media and some of the beliefs he wishes he had never held. He also disclosed how his success in Melbourne was sparked by an email he received from Kelly while he was attempting to get into the media.

Craig Kelly and Kane Cornes.
The contents of the email that Kane Cornes (far left) got from Craig Kelly (far right) have been revealed. Picture: Port Adelaide/Getty Collins disclosed that Kelly told him to stay in South Australia since he would never succeed in the Victorian scenery. “I remember emailing Craig Kelly, who was my manager at TLA at the time, asking him to look into some of these (media) opportunities for me,” Cornes said.

I don’t know him well, but he was as frank as ever, saying, “Kane, your focus needs to be on South Australia, you will not make it in the Victorian media.”

Sincerely, and this is not meant as slight to Kelly’s alias Ned, I value your candour. To pretend that the email I received from Craig Kelly hasn’t motivated me more than anything else to disprove others would be a lie. I’ve never disclosed this to anyone. I still recall how discouraged I felt after reading this email.

Craig Kelly, CEO, Collingwood.
Craig Kelly, the CEO of Collingwood, watches a game. (Image courtesy of Darrian Traynor/Getty Images))
Kane Cornes talks about his ‘feud’ with Channel 7 and Trent Cotchin.
After creating a controversial video in which he mocked Richmond champion Trent Cotchin, Cornes has since found himself at odds with members of the Channel 7 media, Luke Darcy and Cotchin. Cornes disclosed that as a consequence, he was informed “indirectly” that he would never work at Seven.

He stated, “I wasn’t informed directly, but I found out.” They were quite offended by that. I felt a little bit bad since the producers who had broadcast that were pretty offended. However, I did receive that feedback.

On Sunday, we kind of strolled in, and I had seen this video of Trent Cotchin. To be quite honest, I felt the product was mediocre. Yes, Trent is somewhat new to the media, but after seeing what it was like, I personally wouldn’t have posted that on social media, so I feel like they let Trent down by doing that. Occasionally, we make fun of each other.

“I wondered whether there was anything we could do with this Cotchin footage. I didn’t give this video a rating. We pooled our minds and said, “Well, how about we film you (Kane) in a similar style? Let’s find the year’s most dull play and let’s recreate what had happened.” I believe I asked Matt, our producer, if this was inappropriate. Is this too offensive? And everyone said, “nah, it was kind of fun.” Would Trent have found it difficult to look at? Maybe. Do I feel bad about doing it? No. Yes, I would do it once more.

Cornes Kane.