AFL great Kane Cornes has drawn scorn from several different Australian women’s sporting personalities after he said the AFLWs “leg up” would have other women’s sports jealous.

Last week, SEN Afternoons host Andy Maher has been suggesting there has barely been a word spoken about the AFLW with the first round set to start on February 2.

“There’s hardly been a word out of the AFL about AFLW,” Maher told SEN Afternoons on Friday.

“You have to work very hard to find promotional material for AFLW.”

With the AFLX receiving plenty of promotional coverage, Maher has been frustrated for women’s sports.

Senior writer at the AFL Record Ashley Browne, who was on with Maher, agreed.

“Until recently I worked at the AFL and there will be people within the AFL who, and they won’t say it much, but there is a level of despair in some circles within the AFL and club land with the marketing and the IP and the creativity that’s been put into AFLX more than what’s been allocated to AFLW,” he said.

“The balance is totally unfair. So much more should be put into AFLW. I can understand the reasoning for AFLX, but I would think they should be putting more into AFLW for sure.”

This morning, former Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes entered the fray, suggesting the AFLW started with a huge boost with the power of the AFL behind the sport.

The 300-gamer then said other sports would be jealous of the launching pad the AFLW had received.

“I was shocked and staggered by Andy Maher,” Cornes said on SEN SA Breakfast.

“I don’t think there’s any sport in Australia that has been given as many leg-ups as what AFLW has been given.

“There is a story on the Crows’ women’s leadership group, it is the leading sports story in the paper (The Advertiser) today.

“I look down and I get a full page coverage about a pre-season trial match between the Crows and Fremantle.

“You are getting the games free, there is promotional material everywhere, the players are now stars in their own right.

“Andy Maher is so far off the mark there, and this is not personal, but there has been more done for AFLW in this country than any other sport in its history.

“You ask the netballers what they think about AFLW and the work that has been put in and the money that has been invested.

“You ask the Hockeyroos how they feel about AFLW. You ask the swimmers who toil away at five o’clock every morning, you ask the runners the same.

“AFLW has been given that many leg-ups it is not funny.”

SEN SA’s Twitter account posted part of his quote, before a second with a link to the quotes.

KANE CORNES: AFLW has received more leg ups than any other sport in Australia.



You ask the netballers, the hockeyroos, the swimmers, the runners what they think of the money invested in AFLW. — SEN SA 1629 (@1629senSA) January 20, 2019

Australian women’s sporting personalities were quick to hit back.

Australian netball coach Lisa Alexander led the charge against Cornes’ comments, telling him not to pit women in sports against each other.

Kane, please stop this setting women against women thing! It is distasteful and ends up making us all feel devalued, we are not commodities! https://t.co/SAyw1QRHYZ — Lisa Alexander (@CoachLisaA) January 21, 2019

Having had a conversation with a few prominent women from other sports recently I reckon he is totally off the mark. No one is begrudging AFLW. Everyone is happy attention/focus is up across a range of sports. — Jessica Halloran (@JessiHalloran) January 21, 2019

Cornes responded to Alexander later in the afternoon, asking her to listen to his full comments in context, which saw Alexander quickly change her tune.

Hopefully you listened to my full comments Lisa... If not they were in response to criticism of the AFL for not promoting the AFLW competition well enough, which I think is incorrect and other sports would be envious of the exposure it has been given. Thanks — Kane Cornes (@kanecornes) January 21, 2019

Thank you Kane as usual we get only half the news! My apologies for that! Appreciate you taking the time to explain. https://t.co/6vrVP3r3W9 — Lisa Alexander (@CoachLisaA) January 21, 2019

Georgie Parker, the former Hockeyroo and Olympian who moved to the AFLW for the 2018 season also jumped into the conversation.

Can pop me on and have a chat about it if you want? Probably have a good insight in to both.. — Georgie Parker (@georgieparker) January 20, 2019

Hopefully they take Parker up on her offer.

The AFLW launched in 2017 with eight teams but over the last off-season, has increased to 10 for the 2019 season with North Melbourne and Geelong entering the competition.

Four more clubs — Gold Coast, Richmond, St Kilda and West Coast — will join the existing clubs as the numbers increase to 14 teams for the 2020 season.

While almost 42,000 people attended the inaugural AFLW match at Optus Stadium, an average of just over 6,500 fans attend each match in the competition.

The competition also launched its 2019 season this morning, 12 days ahead of the first match.

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