Brisbane Lions make mockery of Kane Cornes as AFL pundit's call backfires spectacularly

Kane Cornes has made a habit of getting his calls and predictions spot-on and has proven himself to be one of the sharpest minds in the AFL, but some of his comments about the Brisbane Lions have come back to haunt him. The Lions stunned the Sydney Swans in Saturday's grand final, winning 120-60 in a dominant display at the MCG.

In doing so they exorcised their demons from last year when they lost to Collingwood by just four points in the decider. Some of the most-maligned players in the AFL are now premiership champions, including Dayne Zorko, Joe Daniher and Eric Hipwood.

And Cornes' comments about all three players were back in the spotlight on Saturday night as the Lions made him eat his words. Last week, the Port Adelaide great labelled Zorko a "liability" and predicted Tom Papley and the Sydney midfielders would run rings around him.

And he famously declared the Lions couldn't win a flag with Daniher and Hipwood in the same side. Speaking at the start of 2023, Cornes ripped Hipwood and Daniher and questioned their ability to co-exist.

“I’ll say it, they can’t win the flag with Daniher and Hipwood,” Cornes said on SEN radio. “The decision to give Hipwood a seven-year contract, and I said this two weeks ago, this is the reason I bang on about it, he’s contracted to Brisbane until the end of 2029, he touches the ball six times a game and if you’re lucky you get one goal from him – then you get all the other frustrations that come with him.

“They’ve thought, ‘this is the guy to give a seven-year contract to’?. It’s astounding and Daniher is maybe the most frustrating player in the competition. His good is as good as anyone."

But Zorko, Hipwood and Daniher all made Cornes eat his words on Saturday. Zorko was part of the defensive unit that limited the Swans to just four goals in the first half, while Hipwood kicked one of the great grand final goals with an absurd effort from the boundary-line.

Daniher had a typically mixed bag, kicking four behinds to go along with two goals. But the 30-year-old has been brilliant in recent weeks and a main reason why the Lions made it to the grand final. Taking to social media, fans were happy to point out that Cornes also said the Lions couldn't win the flag earlier this year when they suffered a slow start to the season.

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Chris Fagan's brilliant gesture for former captain Dayne Zorko

Lions coach Chris Fagan showed how important Zorko is to the team by calling him up onto the stage to lift the premiership cup with captains Lachie Neale and Harris Andrews. Zorko was previously captain of the Lions, but relinquished the role at the start of 2023.

“When I first went to bed last night I thought if we were lucky enough to win it today I want to find a way to get Zorks up with Harris and Lachie to hold the cup up,” Fagan said afterwards. “He became captain pretty early in my time here. Dayne Beams was struggling a bit with injury and so on, he stepped down and really Zorks was the only person who could step up.

“His energy and enthusiasm helped the group get going. He’d been our captain up until last year. I just wanted to recognise that because he’s played a huge part in what we’ve been able to do today. It’s taken us eight years. He’s been enormous in all that.

“He was an interesting choice as a captain but I just needed a guy who could bring energy and was an optimist, it was a pretty tough time for our footy club. He brought all of that and he’s played a huge part in getting us to where we are today.”