West Coast has backflipped on its defensive view of criticism regarding the club’s fitness levels last year.
Just three years on from premiership success, the Eagles struggled to achieve continuity in 2022, as numerous injuries and health concerns triggered a revolving door within the squad.
In April, Kane Cornes ignited debate when he claimed two-time All-Australian Elliot Yeo was “clearly out of shape”.
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“I’m really conscious of the fact you can’t label an AFL player overweight now for the backlash that will come with that, but I was watching Elliot Yeo’s performance on the weekend and his lack of impact in the game,” Cornes told Nine’s Footy Classified.
“His standards have slipped at West Coast … I reckon across the board standards have slipped and he shouldn’t be playing if he presents like that.”
Cornes insisted the club was turning a blind eye to poor body composition, noting that the club’s fitness standards had plummeted.
“That could be one of the reasons West Coast are in the position they’re in,” he said.
“I think some players can present as full-time athletes when their body is their one tool, better than they have … (Yeo) looked out of shape to me.
“We used to call it ‘fat club’ (at Port Adelaide) if you’re above 60 skin folds. Once you get into the AFL system your body is your only weapon. You have to hold yourself to elite standards.”
Cornes slams ‘out of shape’ Eagles star
The Cornes comments were labelled “irrelevant” and “ridiculous” from West Coast insiders at the time.
But now it seems the Eagles have conceded he was on the money.
Cornes labelled the club’s initial rejection of his statement “disgraceful” after senior coach Adam Simpson and captain Luke Shuey declared athleticism was now a priority.
“They are probably as fit as I’ve seen them so that’s a big tick for us,” Simpson said.
Shuey added, “Look, when there’s smoke, there’s fire”.
“A lot of people externally were calling us unfit last year – and they probably weren’t completely off the mark with that suggestion.
“But internally we were always going to figure out once we reviewed the season what we needed to get better at – and you can’t do anything unless you’re fit in this game anymore.
“So our first step over the off-season was making sure we came back in good shape.”
Cornes was less than impressed by the backflip.
“You say, ‘We made some mistakes’ – it’s the way you word it,” he said on SEN WA.
“[Simpson should have said] ‘we made some mistakes in our pre-season, I don’t think the players have been as hungry as I would have liked them to have been’.
“Yep, there’s been mitigating factors around that – part of that is some injuries they had, but that doesn’t excuse them for having a poor diet and letting themselves put on weight and get out of shape.
“There are many exercises you can do that are non-weight bearing that can keep your fitness up.
“Of course, they can word it in a way rather than come out and say, ‘Nah, Kane Cornes is a shock jock because he’s called us unfit’ – that was a disgraceful response from Adam Simpson and (ex-AFL recruiter) Trevor Nisbett when it was clear for everyone to see that Elliot Yeo was overweight, Nic Naitanui was overweight, Tim Kelly was out of shape.
“Everyone could see it except them – or they could see it but they weren’t prepared to put their hand up and say they made a mistake.”
Last week, Cornes grilled Essendon forward Jake Stringer over his substandard fitness this pre-season.
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