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Why Cornes thinks the four players picked before Levi Ashcroft would “want to be good”
Lachlan Geleit • February 21st, 2025 12:52 pm
Kane Cornes loved what he saw from Brisbane draftee Levi Ashcroft in Thursday’s unofficial practice match against Gold Coast.
Playing in the Lions’ second half of their match against Gold Coast after the first half took place against Collingwood, Ashcroft helped himself to 17 disposals with his class evident to all watching.
While it won’t shock many that the highly-rated father-son made an immediate impact, Cornes thinks his performance could be evidence enough that the four players picked ahead of him would want to be very good.
That is because Ashcroft slid to Pick 5 despite being ranked at No.1 in Cal Twomey’s Phantom Form Guide on AFL.com.au before the draft.
“I'm telling you that the four players picked before Levi Ashcroft would want to be good,” Cornes said on SEN Breakfast.
“No one bid on this kid until Pick 5. Let's stop with the niceties where we're just going to look after Brisbane and just give him to them at Pick 5 so they don't have to use their points to bid.
“So, Sam Lalor, Finn O’Sullivan, Jagga Smith and Sid Draper were the four that went before him until Melbourne bid on him at five when Brisbane matched the bid.
“They would want to be good, the four that have gone in front of him, because what I saw last night (was impressive).”
As Ashcroft was rated higher than Pick 5 by both Brisbane and experts alike, Cornes put club recruiters in the gun for potentially being too nice with bidding on father-son selections as the Lions may not have had to pay full freight to add the teenager to their list.
“Brisbane were absolutely shocked that no one bid on him earlier. They had him ranked at one or two, and he's gone at five. He's ready to go already,” Cornes said.
“I don't know if he's going to be better than his brother (Will), the talk is that he could be and that’s a Norm Smith Medallist we're talking about.
“Enough of the niceties, so who is in the gun for me this morning? It’s the clubs for how nice we’ve become.
“We've just become far too nice, and I'm calling for some ruthlessness to come back.
“If you've got the best player in the draft, bid on them at one and make the club pay full price because this kid's going to be special.”
Ashcroft will hope to make his AFL debut when the Lions face the Cats to kick off the 2025 season on Thursday, March 6.
