Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes has called out Aaron Naughton’s performance this season, labelling the Western Bulldogs forward “the most overrated player in football”.
At the end of last year, Naughton inked a monster eight-year contract extension worth an estimated $1.2 million a season.
That contract is yet to kick in with Naughton’s previous deal only expiring at the end of this season.
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On Wednesday evening, Bulldogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli won his sixth Charles Sutton Medal. However, Naughton was nowhere to be seen on the leaderboard after failing to finish inside the club’s top 10.
Naughton played 20 games this season — missing four games between rounds 11 and 15 with a medial ligament tear.
The 24-year-old averaged 11 disposals, five marks and one goal a game in 2024 — on par with previous standards set across seven seasons with the Bulldogs.
“Aaron Naughton continues to be the most overrated player in football,” Cornes told AFL Trade Radio.
“How can you not finish top 10 in a best and fairest [count]?
“If you are getting beaten by Lachlan Bramble in your best and fairest, if you’re getting beaten by Rory Lobb for goodness sake, Bailey Williams [and] Taylor Duryea in your best and fairest and you’ve signed a deal until the end of 2032 and you are probably the highest-paid player in that squad — you just have to be better.
“I’ve had this thought for a while. This is a player that has been around for a while now.
“He is in the prime of his career — never even in the All-Australian squad, never won a best and fairest, and we speak about Aaron Naughton as if he is one of the great key forwards in the game. He’s just not.
Cornes said Naughton’s influence within the side should be setting off alarm bells at Whitten Oval.
“[The Bulldogs] need to question what role they want him to play,” Cornes said.
“And he’s got to question his influence on games and whether he’s ever going to be the player that they think they’ve signed until the end of 2032.”