{"id":24594,"date":"2015-02-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\/uncategorized\/blame-afl-sanfl-raid\/"},"modified":"2015-02-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-22T00:00:00","slug":"blame-afl-sanfl-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\/uncategorized\/blame-afl-sanfl-raid\/","title":{"rendered":"Blame AFL for SANFL raid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Graham Cornes says the Essendon NAB Challenge debacle is the AFL\u2019s fault.<\/h3>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the AFL\u2019s bungled handling of it that really annoys me,\u201d Cornes told Rowey and Bicks on FIVEAA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are they forcing the club to field a team when more than half their players are temporarily suspended? <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re either guilty of the offence and then you are suspended or your innocent,\u201d Cornes said. \u201cPending the outcome of this tribunal they should be allowed to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornes said you couldn\u2019t blame Essendon for approaching SANFL players to use as top-ups in the NAB Challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been told they\u2019ve got to have a team, so they\u2019ve got to find some players. You don\u2019t blame them. Maybe they could\u2019ve gone about it a bit differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he also didn\u2019t blame players for taking the opportunity offered to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lots of ways you\u2019ve got to look at this, and you\u2019ve got to look at each perspective before you can come up with a definitive opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

LISTEN to the full interview, including Cornesy\u2019s take on the Karmichael Hunt\u2019s cocaine charges: <\/strong><\/p>\n