Cornes sceptical of Saints’ Stringer ‘briefing’

Kane Cornes has his radar up and looking for summer stories where clubs brief journalists for a positive spin.

Cornes noticed an article by Jon Ralph in the Herald Sun over the weekend about St Kilda’s newest acquisition, Jake Stringer, which piqued his interest.

The story is all praise and positivity for ex-Don and Dog Stringer’s ability and what he will bring to the Saints despair being discarded by his third club, GWS.

And Cornes loved it, even if he feels the Saints came to Ralph with a briefing of sorts.

“I want our audience's radars to be up. If you see anything that you think has been a briefing from a club to a journalist, and I've got one for you today,” Cornes said on SEN Summer Run.

“I actually respect it. So page 42 of the Herald Sun today, it's my man, Safe Space (Ralph). Well, the headline he wouldn't have written, but it says, ‘Jake St Kilda Great Again’, as in Make St Kilda Great Again. He's speaking about The Package, Jake Stringer.

“The first line - ‘There is only enough room in the AFL for one Wizard’.

“So four points for trying to compare Jake Stringer to The Wizard. ‘By the end of 2027, Nick Watson might be the AFL's top five players’, giving all this.

“‘But as Jake Stringer starts out at his fourth AFL club in coming weeks, it is worth noting what a canny acquisition this could be for St Kilda’.

“So I thought, oh, here we go. There's been all the doom and gloom about the Saints. They've been shafted with the fixture. They're under pressure. Everything is closing in on the Saints.

“And the St Kilda media team have gone, ‘Hey, we wouldn't mind some positivity. We're about to come back to training. We’ve got Max King who can't get out on the park. We got the Nas (Wanganeen-Milera) contract. It's going to be a big talking point. We’ve got Max Hall's contract. Tassie coming for him. We’ve got Ross (Lyon) under the pump. We got the worst fixture of all. We need something. What can we do to give us some positivity?’

“‘You know what? I'll write you a Jake Stringer column about how this is going to be one of the most canny acquisitions that we've seen’.

“I just thought full credit. My radar is up. Now, I'm not casting aspersions. Just my radar is up.

“Whilst we are on the Summer Run, if you see anything as clubs return to pre-season training today and in the coming days that has been a briefing from club to journalist, I want to hear about it.

“Jake St Kilda Great Again, at his fourth club. No one wanted him, but Jake Stringer is going to save Ross Lyon singlehandedly.

“Too good, too good.”