Port Adelaide champion Kane Cornes has applauded the AFL for their pledge to eradicate staging from the game.
A number of players were warned for staging last season, and new AFL football operations boss Steve Hocking took notice of that, suggesting on Thursday the league would "keep an eye" on players who dived to sway the umpire, with financial sanctions set to be handed to serial offenders.
Cornes, who now replaces Gerard Whateley on Friday morning's on SEN, was pleased the AFL had woken up to staging, and labelled diving "a blight on the game".
โDespite weekly examples of staging across the competition, no player in eight years has ever received an official warning from the MRP for diving,โ Cornes said on SENโs Whateley.
โThe AFL has simply swept it under the carpet and it still remains a blight on the game.
โI was thrilled to read yesterday that the AFL might be, for the first time, having a serious crack at stamping out this tactic.โ
Cornes then went on to name and shame some of the biggest offenders during the 2017 season, taking shots at some of the stars of the game.
"Disappointingly in season 2017 some of our biggest stars were guilty. In round 13, the AFL refused to punish the game's best defender, Alex Rance for his blatant acting when hit with a push from Buddy Franklin, which sucked in the umpire, resulting in a Rance free-kick," Cornes said on-air.
"Later in the year he was also able to milk a soft free kick from another Toby Greene brain fade, with some acting better served on Home and Away rather than on a footy field.
"These indiscretions were not exclusive to Rance.
"Brownlow medallist Patrick Dangerfield was heavily criticised after collapsing to the ground after some minor contact from Adelaideโs Hugh Greenwood. Crows legend Andrew Mcleod took to twitter and accused Dangerfield of a flopping.
"Melbourne young gun Clayton Oliver was guilty of flopping as well and the reputation of former North Melbourne forward Lindsay Thomas has long suffered as a result of trying to milk free kicks.
"Even Chad Wingard, who regularly risks his safety running back with the flight of ball, was guilty of a poor staging effort in Port Adelaideโs round 12 loss to Essendon."
Cornes finished off his rant by hoping the AFL would back up their strong words with actions once the first case of the season presents itself.
