Former Port Adelaide captain Domenic Cassisi has given some insight into the playing career of Kane Cornes, revealing the outspoken commentator took criticism "worse than anyone."
Cornes has become a major figure in the football media landscape in recent years, appearing regularly on TV and radio to offer his often strong opinions on the competition's talking points.
Last week, North Melbourne took the significant step to ban Cornes from their rooms prior to their clash with Essendon, in response to what they felt was "inappropriate, vindictive, bullying behaviour" amid the former tagger's assessment of young Roo Harry Sheezel's game.
MORE: All the latest AFL injury news
Appearing on 7 Adelaide's "Two Team Town" program, Cassisi spoke about how Cornes would react to criticism as a player.
"I thought Kane's comments probably did get a little bit too personal for a young player," Cassisi said.
"We got drafted the same year, I was with him every day and us guys that played with him understand that, if someone said anything about Kane's game, he took it worse than anyone.
"He literally would struggle to come to the club, he wouldn't talk to anyone, he'd be flat.
"So we sort of look at it and go, 'What you're doing to this kid, you couldn't really take yourself when someone criticised you.'
"You do look at it and think how can you inflict that on other people? But that's the path he's gone down."
Despite the response to his comments, Cornes didn't back down, taking to social media with a snarky post after the Kangaroos' narrow loss to Essendon.