Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes has unloaded on Richmond youngster Sydney Stack, criticising the the 21-year-old’s “ridiculous” use of social media.
Cornes’ comments came after a recent interview in the Herald Sun saw Tigers elite performance manager Peter Burge reveal that Stack “still has some work to do with consistency of preparation”.
Entering his fourth pre-season with the Tigers, Stack has shown immense potential. However, his 33-game AFL career has been marred by several off-field incidents.
READ MORE: Fittipaldi airlifted to hospital after horror F2 crash
READ MORE: F1 controversy after Verstappen ‘brake checks’ Hamilton
READ MORE: WA’s desperate move to keep Perth Ashes Test
Speaking on SEN Breakfast, Cornes said Stack’s focus on social media stardom is distracting him from developing his football.
“How Richmond go this year is going to be dependent on how a lot of their younger players come through,” he said.
“One of those is Sydney Stack. I know he wasn’t taken in the top 10 (of the 2019 draft) with Connor Rozee, Sam Walsh and Bailey Smith, but he’s in that situation of his career. He is equally as talented as any of those… he’s lost his way a little bit for reasons that we know of.
“There’s a bit of old school in me about this. Whether someone at Richmond has done it or not, or whether the new era is to just ‘let individuals be individuals and embrace social media’.
“But there’s something in me that says, ‘Sydney, put your social media away, put your ridiculous TikTok videos away’ — if you’ve watched them, they’re cringeworthy, they’re embarrassing — until you get a kick.
“He’s achieved nothing, but he has the capabilities to be a very, very good 200-game player.
“For those Richmond fans who have seen his social media videos, am I too old school to think that I could sit him down, shake him, ban him from TikTok until he gets a kick and has some success? Or is that not the way it goes now?
“That’s what they are saying publicly, that he’s got a lot of work to do. Imagine what they’re saying privately about his preparation and his endurance and his skin folds.
“What I’m worried about is he is wasting it. He’s as talented as Rozee, Walsh and Smith, but I reckon he’s wasting it.”
Cornes also said he felt “very similar” about the Bulldogs’ previous No.1 draft pick, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, who is also extremely active on social media.
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!