I'm finding it difficult to understand Cornes. On occasions when he was a coach I found reason to respect him, like the time at Alberton when instead of skulking into his coaches box he braved gauntlet of the Port Adelaide faithful with a smile and a wave, and then there were the times he was an absolute d***, like after the 1990 GF when he gave a "congratulatory" speech that was a poorly hidden dig at the Maggies.
Again with a great number of his articles which are very anti-Port he shows his bias. But when he talks about something connected with football alone he often has something good to say. His latest part on "the inmates taking over the asylum" about players forcing teams hands to let them go before free agency was very well-written. One other thing he could have mentioned is that most "improvements" that were made have been exploited to the detriment of the game. For instance, video was to catch the snipers but is now being used to catch even cases where it is questionable an offence has been committed. And grainy video is being accepted over the word of the umpire. Free agency which may have appeared a boon has just led to players holding their team to ransom the year before it comes up.
I know there are very few on this board who agree with the decision of those who left the Maggies when they became the Port reserves, and I certainly don't. But a lot of us would be able to understand why they made that decision, they were seeing Port no longer being a family club and they didn't like it. And it is a shame, some of them were with Port up to 60 years.