The AFL is being mocked after revelations some footy players receive at least 93 holiday days a year while the average Australian full-time worker gets just four weeks of leave.
Channel Seven commentator Kane Cornes has taken aim at the league for the astonishing amount of leave players receive every year.
Swans coach Dean Cox recently revealed his team’s schedule, stating that first-to-fourth-year players would return to training on November 10 while senior players would come back on November 24, with the team playing their last match on August 23.
Cornes called the situation a ‘joke’ while footy great Nick Riewoldt quipped that ‘AFL footy will remain a part-time job in 2026’.
‘Their (Sydney’s) last game is on August 23,’ Cornes said on The Agenda Setters.
‘Their senior players are back on November 24.
The AFL is being ridiculed after revelations that some footy players receive a 93-day holiday break (Isaac Heeney pictured)
Kane Cornes (pictured) called the situation a ‘joke’ and believes that coaches should be spending more time with players in the preseason
‘That is a 93-day break for our AFL players and you are telling me these are full-time players.
‘It is a joke and no wonder the skill level (is questionable and) injuries are high. It’s for that reason.
‘(AFL players) get far too much time off (and) that’s not including Christmas.’
Cornes believes coaches should get more time with their players pre-season.
‘It’s been one of my biggest frustrations for a long time,’ Cornes told SEN earlier in the year.
‘I actually have been writing about this for seven years.
‘Players get far too much time off and the lack of preparation is leading to this significant spate of injuries.’
Cornes claimed the amount of downtime players get has ‘gone way too far’.
AFL great Nick Riewoldt joked that ‘AFL footy will remain a part-time job in 2026’
Swans coach Dean Cox recently revealed that his senior players would come back on November 24 – meaning some players will get a 93 day break (Swans star Heeney is pictured with partner Lauren Houghton)
‘The AFL Players’ Association have far too much power in the game. Who is going to stand up to them?
‘If you’re wondering why everyone is getting injured and why it’s never been worse, this is why.’
Cornes has spoken to coaches himself and even delved into North Melbourne’s pre-season preparations as an example of how clubs only have a limited amount of time with their players.
‘Clubs have had enough. You’ve spoken to people, I’ve spoken to coaches before, I’ve spoken to high-performance managers. They say they just do not have enough time with the players to prepare them.
‘We all remember this little clip from Ross Lyon which I was staggered by: “We give them a lot of time off, I think they get three and a half days a week off. 16 hours in (at the club) and game day”.
’16 hours a week… I’ve always thought I’m going to get to the bottom of this. I have done some digging around in terms of how much leave does an AFL player get.’
It comes as the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement, which was reached in 2023, has seen AFL players receive greater leave entitlements.
But Cornes continued, using North Melbourne, who failed to reach finals last year, as an example of a club which had an extended off-season break, but will have only trained for eight and a half weeks prior to their first pre-season match.
‘I’ve used North Melbourne as the example as they didn’t play finals,’ he added.
‘Their last game was on August 24, they returned to pre-season training for five-plus year players on November 25 – so 12 weeks of holiday in the off-season.
‘They then trained for three weeks before Christmas, they broke up on December 19 – so they’ve had three weeks training.
‘They then returned post-Christmas on January 9 – so there’s another three weeks holiday and we’re up to 15 weeks already and we’re in January.
‘Their first pre-season game is on February 22 – so they have five and a half weeks of training from January 9 to February 22 to prepare the players after Christmas. That is eight and a half weeks for the year to get ready for the most difficult sport to play in the world, the most physically demanding.
‘Eight and a half weeks is not enough, so it’s no wonder the high-performance staff you’re speaking to, the coaches that we’re speaking to… speak to a coach off the record and they’ll say, “We just don’t have enough time with the players”.’