Sydney star Isaac Heeney slammed by Kane Cornes for his poor grand final despite ankle injury in Swans’ defeat

Kane Cornes has slammed Sydney star Isaac Heeney for his lacklustre grand final performance, not accepting his “excuse” of an injury for his tough day.

Heeney had a season-low 14 disposals in the grand final thumping, limping from the ground in the third term after he aggravated a stress fracture in his ankle which he revealed he’d carried for most of the Swans’ finals campaign.

It comes two years after Heeney had a tough outing in the 2022 grand final loss to Geelong, registering only 11 touches and a goal.

Outspoken expert Cornes blasted Heeney for his ineffectual performance at the MCG on Saturday after being one of the best players in the season.

“He was poor yesterday ... he was the hottest player in football coming into this game, he was the favourite for the Norm Smith Medal, he was walking on water in the qualifying final, in the prelim final Port Adelaide had no answers — he was a man possessed,” Cornes told The Sunday Footy Show.

“To turn up yesterday (Saturday) and not give the performance that he had all year ... there was no stress reaction in his shin in the prelim final or qualifying final so don’t give me an injury excuse.

“I just don’t want the injury excuses. Isaac’s got to look at his preparation in the big games and why he’s failed again as the best player in football this year but not on the biggest stage.”

Sydney had plenty of injury troubles leading into and during the match. Captain Callum Mills missed with a hamstring injury, while forward Logan McDonald played with a leg ankle injury.

McDonald was subbed out of the decider early in the third term after he re-injured it, finishing with only one kick — the fewest disposals of any player in the game.

Heeney said the injury flared up early in the loss to the Lions and couldn’t complete the game after he battled it for most of the day.

“I felt good going into the (Grand Final) and then I hurt it when I got run down, tackled late in the first quarter,” he said.

“I obviously couldn’t get through and in the end, it was too far a deficit and I wasn’t moving well. They said, ‘You’re done’.

“I’ll go see the doctors and get a scan. We’ll go from there.”