Vindicated at last.

For years Kane Cornes has been calling the Demons out for their culture issues and trying to fool their fans and the media with words that have not matched their actions.

Throughout 2024 and 2025 Simon Goodwin, Gary Pert and Max Gawn emphatically denied any internal issues with the club’s culture, insisting it was the best it had ever been.

Some may have been fooled, but given the exodus at Casey Fields – which includes Goodwin, Pert, Kate Roffey, Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver – Cornes said recent comments from Gawn should have people thinking twice about what they believe.

Earlier this week the ruckman was asked about Tom McDonald’s claim that it would be “irresponsible to say the culture is absolutely perfect”.

Gawn said: “As much as I’m bullish on what we’re creating within the four walls, you have to look at it from someone else’s eyes at some point to be able to fully get an evaluation on your football club.

“And I think Tom’s not far from the truth there, to be honest.

“There was some holes in our culture and hopefully we’ve gone the right way."

The penny has finally dropped.

“Yesterday we heard from Max,” Cornes said on his new SEN show Locked In. “I saw he admitted the culture at Melbourne as not strong and was an issue. First time I have heard anyone from the club admit that even though we could all see it and we called it out in the media. I feel a bit vindicated.

“Captain, CEO and coach all telling us how good their culture is and now finally Max yesterday declared the club’s culture was not right. There are some clubs you can’t believe a word they say.

“You can honestly see straight through it. Deny things as much as you want but actions speak louder than words.

“The most authentic and best clubs that you deal with, usually when you speak you believe them; we never believed Melbourne when they spoke.

“Have your radar up especially this time of year when clubs are telling you one thing and the complete opposite is happening.

"What about the rubbish Melbourne spun for three years on issues we could all see. Thery were emphatic nothing was wrong and then their captain, their best ever player, a legend eventually in the AFL HoF says “no or culture wasn’t right and we needed a new coach to fix it”.

"I’m hopeful that will fix it, I think Steven King is impressive and the changes to the list – when they get rid of May – will be positive.”

Awww well done Kane

if no one else says well done to you, you just say it yourself

This is why clubs play the absolute denial strategy with the always nonsense claim that culture is perfect.

McDonald & Gawn; "We weren't perfect."

Cornes; "Melbourne admits culture is fundamentally broken and they are all pathological liars."

At some point actual football people will have to start taking classes normally intended for people leaving abusive relationships. Learning to not engage with deliberate drama and the deliberately unreasonable statements designed to suck people into an argument and therefore back into the conversation and 'relationship' you were trying to escape.

What does it say when media training teaches the same skillset as abusive relationship recovery?

25 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Vindicated at last.

For years Kane Cornes has been calling the Demons out for their culture issues and trying to fool their fans and the media with words that have not matched their actions.

Throughout 2024 and 2025 Simon Goodwin, Gary Pert and Max Gawn emphatically denied any internal issues with the club’s culture, insisting it was the best it had ever been.

Some may have been fooled, but given the exodus at Casey Fields – which includes Goodwin, Pert, Kate Roffey, Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver – Cornes said recent comments from Gawn should have people thinking twice about what they believe.

Earlier this week the ruckman was asked about Tom McDonald’s claim that it would be “irresponsible to say the culture is absolutely perfect”.

Gawn said: “As much as I’m bullish on what we’re creating within the four walls, you have to look at it from someone else’s eyes at some point to be able to fully get an evaluation on your football club.

“And I think Tom’s not far from the truth there, to be honest.

“There was some holes in our culture and hopefully we’ve gone the right way."

The penny has finally dropped.

“Yesterday we heard from Max,” Cornes said on his new SEN show Locked In. “I saw he admitted the culture at Melbourne as not strong and was an issue. First time I have heard anyone from the club admit that even though we could all see it and we called it out in the media. I feel a bit vindicated.

“Captain, CEO and coach all telling us how good their culture is and now finally Max yesterday declared the club’s culture was not right. There are some clubs you can’t believe a word they say.

“You can honestly see straight through it. Deny things as much as you want but actions speak louder than words.

“The most authentic and best clubs that you deal with, usually when you speak you believe them; we never believed Melbourne when they spoke.

“Have your radar up especially this time of year when clubs are telling you one thing and the complete opposite is happening.

"What about the rubbish Melbourne spun for three years on issues we could all see. Thery were emphatic nothing was wrong and then their captain, their best ever player, a legend eventually in the AFL HoF says “no or culture wasn’t right and we needed a new coach to fix it”.

"I’m hopeful that will fix it, I think Steven King is impressive and the changes to the list – when they get rid of May – will be positive.”

He’s right, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that he seems to be a bit obsessed with running the MFC down, when it’s no doubt something that every club in the competition is guilty of doing, at some point in time.

31 minutes ago, hardtack said:

He’s right, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that he seems to be a bit obsessed with running the MFC down, when it’s no doubt something that every club in the competition is guilty of doing, at some point in time.

Cornes does seem to have an axe to grind with MFC, its not just Dees fans imagining it.

It would provide some substance to Cornes self-congratulatory remarks if he had mentioned a club which had internal issues and admitted them to him. There are 3 possibilties:

A. Club has no problems, so says 'all is well'

B. Club has problems and still says 'all is well'

C. Club has problems and tells the world.

I expect the number of cases of C can be counted on the fingers of a mutilated hand. But picking on MFC is his hobby.

Edited 17 minutes ago17 min by sue

Does anyone have the source or link to the Tom McDonald interview? Thanks

Bottom line is that he was right. Love it or hate it. Cornes does have a whack for sniffing out BS and we have been spewing out BS for nigh 3 years - probably longer tbh. The premiership clearly got to the ego's of the playing group and there was not enough leadership / experience around the club to keep the personalities in check.

I also think Clarry and Gus's incident were the nails in the coffin for the team. We should have basically initiated our rebuild back then, but decided to hang on to Clarry. I get hindsight is a wonderful thing, but i genuinely believe that a stronger club would have tried to get max value for Clarry at the end of 2023. It would have likely given us 2-3 first rounders and we'd likely be competitive again now rather that the bottom 4 position that is luming.

1 minute ago, GS_1905 said:

Bottom line is that he was right. Love it or hate it. Cornes does have a whack for sniffing out BS and we have been spewing out BS for nigh 3 years - probably longer tbh. The premiership clearly got to the ego's of the playing group and there was not enough leadership / experience around the club to keep the personalities in check.

I also think Clarry and Gus's incident were the nails in the coffin for the team. We should have basically initiated our rebuild back then, but decided to hang on to Clarry. I get hindsight is a wonderful thing, but i genuinely believe that a stronger club would have tried to get max value for Clarry at the end of 2023. It would have likely given us 2-3 first rounders and we'd likely be competitive again now rather that the bottom 4 position that is luming.

It’s finding the balance between supporting a “troubled” star and cutting them loose. I tend to have a foot in both camps as I thought the club was fantastic in its support of Oliver. I’d also watched the game changing and would love to have the picks you talk of. As you say in hindsight we got it wrong. It’s why you need the very best people at all levels of the club…..we clearly didn’t at the time and I’m yet to be convinced we currently have them.

41 minutes ago, No. 31 said:

Cornes does seem to have an axe to grind with MFC, its not just Dees fans imagining it.

Yes, it is. Overly sensitive fanboys who want to put their head in the sand.

Cornes "ner ner n ner ner see I was right Iiiiii'm riiiiight youuuuuu stiiinnnnkk" he reminds me of young Stilwell Angel in "A League Of Their Own" in how he carries on.