- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Former AFL player Kane Cornes has sparked debate about concerns over criticising women’s sport with Australian cricketer Ellyse Perry among the many to respond to his polarising viewpoints.
Cornes, who played for Port Adelaide in the AFL and hosts a breakfast show on SEN Radio, has raised concerns in a column entitled The elephant in the Room with women’s sport which states “the media and supporters are scared to objectively analyse what they are watching for fear it will come across as being critical which will create fierce backlash from an overly sensitive cohort”.
He then said on radio that people were “petrified” to criticise sportswomen.
The basis of his article stemmed from a tweet by English journalist Isabelle Westbury, a commentator for Seven and Triple M and former first-class cricketer, who posted a message of support for Australian captain Meg Lanning as last week’s Ashes Test in Canberra headed towards what turned out to be a thrilling finish which ended in a draw.
“Whatever happens, lay off the players, lay off Lanning, & lay off telling ’em what they should & shouldn’t be doing. ‘Cos whatever it is, it’s brilliant. Always against the odds, alway surprising. Oh, & this will finish as the fastest scoring Test.”
Cornes believed that Westbury’s fellow commentator Brad Hodge was reluctant to be too negative about Lanning’s tactics.
He argued she had “a shocker”.
“Her field placements were overly defensive against an opposition requiring around five runs an over and her reluctance to bowl her match winning quicks when the game was at a critical juncture deserves close assessment.
“Had this been the poor captaincy choices of former male skippers Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting or god forbid Michael Clarke, it would’ve been headline news.”
Perry, who was part of the Australian team which went one wicket away from winning the Test, has responded to Cornes via social media by agreeing with some of his sentiment but rejecting his assertion that the strident commentary of spin king Shane Warne of the men’s team is “must-watch TV”.
1/2 It’s absolutely necessary for the evolution of womens sport that objective analysis and criticism is given. I think most female athletes truly welcome this as it validates their or their teams performance and efforts. https://t.co/lag6GKXHjZ
— Ellyse Perry (@EllysePerry) February 1, 2022
“It’s absolutely necessary for the evolution of women’s sport that objective analysis and criticism is given,” she tweeted.
“I think most female athletes truly welcome this as it validates their or their teams performance and efforts.
“However I think it’s a poor reflection on our viewing population if we think ‘a warpath of criticism’ and overt negativity towards teams or athletes is much watch television.”
Westbury has also responded via social media to say she with Cornes’ assessment that women’s sport needs to be analysed and criticised when warranted but said her particular “contribution has been misunderstood” in reference to the initial tweet.
Agree w/ this ???????? but my partic. contribution has been misunderstood.
If we can't criticise women's sport, it'll never progress. 100%. What is lost is that we often hold women to an impossible standard. Espec. in Tests re declarations, risk taking etc.https://t.co/rMM1yCZt6H
— Isabelle Westbury (@izzywestbury) February 1, 2022
“If we can’t criticise women’s sport, it’ll never progress. 100%. What is lost is that we often hold women to an impossible standard. Espec. in Tests re declarations, risk taking etc.
“Women declare more, & are way more attacking w/ tactics. But we often blame them for draws. Which is utter rubbish. So yeh, my contrib was in a v particular scenario. Otherwise, thank gawd for likes of Hodge, Copeland, Ferling et al. on 7’s coverage. Critical analysis = key.”
Lanning’s declaration turned out to be spot on. She closed the Australian second innings at 7-216 to set England a record target of 257 from 48 overs to win the one-off Test.
Despite needing 5.35, the tourists looked on track to win before a late collapse of 6-27 meant last pair Kate Cross and Sophie Ecclestone blocked out the last couple of overs to avoid defeat.
When compared to Pat Cummins’ late declaration on day four of the men’s fourth Test at the SCG, Lanning’s decision was much better – all four results were on the cards down to the final ball whereas Cummins effectively batted England out of their match and they were able to occupy the crease to force a draw rather than chase a win and potentially offer up more wicket-taking chances.
Cornes also raised questions about the coverage of AFLW by stating he believes “there have been some really poor team performances and games in general”.
“I’m acutely aware that the players are part-time and are juggling work and football, but six seasons in we should expect all players to be able to execute a standard drop punt and teams should certainly be capable of entering the forward 50 zone more than 10 times in a game.
“The players are desperate to grow the game and become full-time. The only way for that to happen is for the media coverage to be a lot more interesting which will increase the engagement in the sport.”
He also called for tennis to increase women’s matches to five sets, pointing to the fact that Ash Barty’s final lasted four hours less than Rafael Nadal’s epic but each player “collected over $2.8 million for their respective wins”.
Quite reasonably, he pointed out that women have been “competing and thriving in one of the world’s most gruelling events – the marathon at the Olympics – since 1984” so tennis cannot claim the disparity is based on physical differences.
He summed up his view by contending that the divide between praise and criticism of women’s sport is “awfully lopsided” which is doing more harm than good and that “the women’s codes will thrive at a rapid rate when this eventually balances out”.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.