Kane Cornes and Kate McCarthy disagree over Hawthorn’s absence from Jasmine Garner’s 100-game guard of honour

AFL and AFLW greats Kane Cornes and Kate McCarthy have clashed over a conspicuous absence from the celebration of North Melbourne superstar Jasmine Garner’s 100th game.

Garner, arguably the AFLW’s best player, was chaired off Kinetic Stadium through a guard of honour on Friday night after she became just the sixth player in AFLW history to reach the 100-game milestone.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Hawthorn slammed for snubbing Jasmine Garner’s milestone.

North Melbourne players, coaches and staff lined up to celebrate their champion midfielder, but weren’t joined by Hawthorn, who had already left the ground and gone into their changerooms.

Elsewhere around the competition, Fremantle lined up for Adelaide’s Anne Hatchard and Collingwood lined up for Brisbane’s Shannon Campbell, who each reached the same milestone as Garner.

McCarthy said it was a poor look for the Hawks to not be there for Garner.

“We had a number of celebrations over the weekend, some more 100-club players,” she told The Wrap.

“I want to play you something that we saw over the weekend, and I want you to tell me (which) one of these things is not like the other.

“As we see Shannon Campbell getting chaired off in her 100th game, we then saw Anne Hatchard who was chaired off in her 100th game — and then when we go to North Melbourne, can you pick the difference here? What is the difference when you see this chairing off compared to the other two?”

Co-host Gemma Bastiani answered the obvious question: “Look, I don’t see any opposition players there. No Hawks players there, which is kind of remarkable given how universally loved and respected Jasmine Garner is.”

McCarthy added: “For me, this was one that I didn’t like the look of over the weekend.

“Jas Garner, she is one of the most respected and universally loved players of the competition, and I think this is a really poor look from Hawthorn as a club.

“This isn’t on the players, though, I don’t think. When you lose a game, there’s other things that you’re thinking about, you’re devastated.

“This is on the leadership and probably the administration; your manager or someone that’s at the game that’s all across the logistics of what’s happening in the game. There needed to be Hawthorn players present at that for mine.

“Every other team (would do it). Fremantle have just been knocked out of the competition, they would be devastated — they still formed a guard of honour for Anne Hatchard.”

“And I don’t think this went unnoticed by North Melbourne players either, as we see what Alice O’Loughlin commented on an AFL Women’s post about Jas Garner: ‘@hawthornaflw, where you at?’

“And to be honest, I support Alice O’Loughlin in calling that out. It adds a little bit of spice (to their rivalry). But for me, just a really poor look from the club.”

Cornes has long held the view that losing teams should get off the ground as soon as possible, with the exception only of opposition players being chaired off for a very significant milestone, like 300 games or more.

Still in its relative infancy, AFLW players celebrate 25, 50, 75 and 100-game milestones because there are so few games in each season available to play.

Now at the pointy end of its 10th season, the AFLW has only staged 90 home and away rounds in total, meaning only players with finals experience have had the opportunity to reach three figures.

In comparison, 10 years at AFL level could see a men’s player play well over 200 games, barring significant injury.

But Cornes remains strong in his view that Hawthorn did not have to stay on the ground for Garner’s milestone.

“Not sure when opposition teams lining up for a notable but not a major milestone became the expectation. Sport isn’t supposed to be nice,” he said, responding to McCarthy.

McCarthy replied: “Agree sport isn’t meant to be nice. Do argue that it’s more about mutual respect.”