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Cornes criticises “ridiculous, stupid” training drills
SEN • January 20th, 2026 9:46 am
Safe to say that Kane Cornes is not a fan of wrestling drills at footy training.
Adelaide Crows young gun Dan Curtin dislocated his knee cap during a wrestling drill with captain Jordan Dawson at training on Monday.
He will likely be sidelined for up to eight weeks.
Cornes does not believe this type of ‘mental toughness’ training is necessary in this day and age.
“I shake my head sometimes at the ridiculous things footy clubs do mainly during pre-season,” Cornes said on SEN Breakfast.
“You wouldn’t see clubs doing this during the season when players are recovering. But a lot of stupid clubs do it to be honest.
“I used to fight a lot with the high performance staff at Port Adelaide when they tried to put us through similar things.”
Cornes added: “The footage of Dan Curtin is pretty horrific. You can see the distress that he is in.
“And I go ‘why are you doing this?’
“Usually there’s an overweight assistant coach on the sidelines barking orders, trying to fire up the players, telling them they’re not going hard enough. They walk around with smiles on their faces and laughing at the punishment they’re putting their players through. You do it then!”
Cornes believes the Crows will put these types of drills away after the Curtin mishap.
He wonders what the mindset of the Crows will be if the emerging 20-year-old cannot get himself right in 2026.
“Two players lying on top of each other and wrestling… it has no relevance (to footy),” he added.
“I guarantee you Adelaide will put this away now. They won’t do it again because people’s jobs are on the line.
“If Dan Curtin is not there for the first month of the season and their midfield is mauled like it was in the Hawthorn final, that can cost you one to two wins. This is the small margins.
“Or if Curtin can’t get his body right because he missed the most vital part of pre-season because some stupid high performance coach and some angry, aggressive assistant coach thought it was a good idea to wrestle on the ground for 10 minutes after training - then that’s on them.
“Just ridiculous. I’m getting worked up but it’s just ridiculous the things some coaches think is good to do in the guise of mental toughness.”
Cornes is adamant that the successful clubs who would not partake in this type of training.
“I would be shocked if Brisbane do this. You know the teams that don’t do it are the teams that are good at football,” he said further.
“The teams that are comfortable in their program and know what works and have the runs on the board. I’d be staggered if Geelong do this.
“It’s usually the clubs at the bottom. Not that Adelaide are at the bottom but they’ve had zero success this century. They’d feel like they have to push the boundaries and the limits and test the players.
“There’s a time and a place for that but there’s a time and a way you can do it. Test them in running drills, or the push-up challenge they (the Crows) did before Christmas. Mental challenges that make you a better footballer.
“The risk and reward of this is so dumb. It’s not a crack at Adelaide because 80 per cent of clubs do this rubbish.”
