Craig Hutchinson has accused his friends, Kane Cornes, and Damian Barrett of ‘silly childhood stuff’ over their on-air feud.
Cornes, one of the more polarising figures in AFL media, recently accused his former colleague of paying for an interview with Michael Voss after he left Carlton.
‘I’ll be staggered if there wasn’t a five figure cheque,’ he remarked of Voss giving his only interview to Barrett.
Barrett bit back at Cornes, saying, ‘I don’t want to talk about Kane Cornes normally, but I need to clear it up because of the factually incorrect information he has been spreading
‘I’d rather not go behind the scenes but I’m going to have to just to prove how he’s wrong yet again.
Craig Hutchinson accused the Damien Barrett and Kane Cornes of silly childhood stuff when it comes to their on-air feud
Barrett defended his position on the feud in the spiky conversation
Kane Cornes recently added more fuel to his feud with former colleague Damien Barrett
‘He did not ask for money, I did not offer money, I never do. And Michael Voss was not paid for that interview.
‘But it’s interesting Kane feels the need to go down this path. I do know Kane’s network, and others, did indeed offer Voss a very attractive financial offer to go on their program.’
He also doubled down on the latest episode of The Sounding Board, after Hutchinson reminded Barrett that the pair still work together for AFL.com, ‘Which is interesting that Kane accuses afl.com of paying for something it didn’t pay for,’ he said.
On that same episode, Hutchy cut a serene figure as he gave his co-host food for thought.
‘I just don’t like where this has got to. I am acknowledging my role in this by playing a song and goading you both along,’ he said.
‘And it is a bit unbecoming of me as a person because you are both fantastic people, both great friends of mine, great families and this is just childhood stuff.
Barrett’s interview with Michael Voss after the former Carlton boss stepped down has been the recently lightning rod for his feud with Kane Cornes
‘Kane can react to things and get a little sensitive by his own admission you’ve got this stubborn streak that you’ve just got not worry about it..
Barrett fired back, ‘Well as you said at the top and you’ve been flippant to a point but you’ve also cultivated this to a point.
‘Hutchy I’ve done this for 35 years, like what I said about Michael Voss’ situation last week, I wouldn’t want to go down the path of letting the public know how a story comes to play but I had to.
‘And I am happy to say this right now, I’ve been doing this for 35 years and I’ve stayed reasonably true to things that matter to me over that journey and they’ve put me in reasonably good stead.
‘Not walking past that rubbish last week was another platform of that.’
Hutchinson then called Barrett’s reaction to Cornes an overreaction, adding that he gets ‘a little defensive on your teammate’s behalf.’
‘You have this pre-set view in my opinion that if you’re on a desk with you, you’re with me and if you work anywhere else you’re against me,’ he added.
‘No that’s taking it too far because I’ve got friends I don’t work with on the same platform in fact some of my closest friends don’t work for the organisation I work with,’ Barrett responded.
There was another spiky moment as Hutchinson told Barrett, ‘So he left, it’s not your money, Channel Nine is not you, you’re not Channel Nine.’
That drew the ire of Barrett, who said, ‘Hutchy don’t bring money into it, this is not about money its about correcting the record.’
Hutchy wrapped up his part in the conversation by saying, ‘Kane is the same human being with the same values when he sat alongside you as he is today I dont think it does you any service
‘My advice to both of you as mates is life is short don’t worry about all these petty rivalries.’
Despite tensions rising somewhat during the discussion, Barrett and Hutchy finished their chat on a positive note, with Barrett finalising, ‘I know what you are saying and there will be a reflection on this.
‘But when you say don’t get consumed by it, it wasn’t a consumption of my week, as you know I am doing media every single day I don’t think about it alot but I wasn’t going to let that one go.
‘I didn’t know where you were going to take that, but you took it down an educational path and I didn’t mind it.’
