Graham Cornes has clashed with sports broadcaster Francis Leach in a fiery Twitter exchange after Port Adelaide’s Tom Jonas knocked out West Coast Eagle Andrew Gaff during the Power’s loss on Saturday.
Footy fans around the country held their breaths on the weekend when Jonas knocked Gaff out cold with an elbow to the back of the Eagle’s head.
WATCH HERE:
Andrew Gaff was taken off the field with concussion after this clash with Tom Jonas earlier today.https://t.co/VI43DIADJw
— AFL (@AFL) May 21, 2016
The Jonas hit was instantly condemned by many, including Leach who said the contrast in courage from Jonas to Gaff who was going back with the flight “speaks volumes”.
But the comment was labelled “pathetic” by Cornes, who included “#obviouslyneverplayed” in his tweet.
Leach fired back: “Pathetic line from you. Not surprised really,” he tweeted.
Cornesy later clarified, tweeting:
“Hate to see anyone hurt but football accidents happen when two guys are going at the ball from different directions.”
On Monday, a contrite Jonas spoke to media.
“I want to say how remorseful I am with the incident on Saturday night,” he said. “I contacted Andrew after the game and he accepted my apology.”
“I’ll be doing my best to earn respect back from my teammates.
“I play on the edge… I’m a tough, physical competitor. I’m not making any excuses, in this instance I made the wrong decision
“At the end of the day, I did the crime, so I’ll do the time. I’ll be making up for what I’ve done,” he said.
Leach’s co-host on Melbourne radio station SEN David Schwarz said he thought Jonas would cop a three to four week ban.
“I know you had the Twitter war with Graham Cornes, and I don’t agree with Cornesy unfortunately. I’d love to, it was a good dispute that you had with him.
“But you can’t go knocking blokes out, you just simply can’t.
“Whether it’s accidental, and it wasn’t accidental he knew what he was doing, he had the forearm up and he’s taken the bloke out.
“It happened in real-time so you give the player a little bit of the benefit of the doubt, but you know that action is going to be reckless.”
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