'Cheap whack': Greats hit back over Kane Cornes' 'demeaning' sledge

AFL greats have hit back at Kane Cornes’ comments after he took aim at Adelaide Crows coach Matthew Nicks for using water bottles to explain tactics to his hapless players.

North Melbourne were second-last going into the contest with the winless Crows but scored their third win of the season, courtesy of a 69-point belting.

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It meant Adelaide's club record losing streak extended to 12 matches, with Nicks scrambling for answers in his debut season after replacing Don Pike as coach.

Footage showed him using water bottles positioned on the floor to explain tactics to his players.

Port Adelaide great Cornes took aim at Nicks, labelling the scene ‘demeaning’ and something out of junior footy.

But Kangaroo great David King, a dual premiership winner, said the coach was adapting to the situation and it was a ‘cheap whack’ from Cornes.

“Everyone learns differently. Some players need walk-through, some need to see it real-time in a scratch match type situation or match simulation and some will learn like this [using water bottles],” King told Fox Footy’s First Crack.

“Some will have absolutely no idea what’s going on here, because that’s not how they learn. They need a coach to take them one-on-one and walk through it with them.

“I loved it … they had half a dozen players with less than 10 games experience. You talk about AFL footy, they’re young and they’re trying to take in so much. Physically, half of them aren’t able to cope, let alone be schooled like this.”

St Kilda great Leigh Montagna also agreed with King and said while the scene was more common during mid-week training, the ‘education phase’ of the young team may warrant a change in coaching.

Corners lets rip at Nicks

Port Adelaide great Cornes said he had never seen anything quite like it over the course of his professional career, with modern coaches using tablets or at least white boards to get their message across.

Cornes says while he understood the frustrations of the Adelaide coach, he found the bizarre scenes "demeaning" for the players involved.

“I can’t let Adelaide off. I know they’re becoming a little bit irrelevant and there is a little bit of fatigue about the situation Adelaide finds themselves in, but this is a club that has never, ever been in the state they are in now,” Cornes said on SEN’s Whateley.

“I just thought the vision that will last with me for a while was Matthew Nicks explaining his game style with drink bottles. That’s how basic he had to get the message to his players.

“I thought it was quite demeaning for the players, but I don’t begrudge Nicks for doing it. But just to have them sitting there like they’re in kindergarten explaining the game style with drink bottles when every other team is using vision and iPads and there’s Nicks using drink bottles.”

With Andrew Reid - Yahoo Sport Australia