Kangaroos told to make Tarryn Thomas 'earn it' as unlikely AFL return nears
North Melbourne has been urged to make Tarryn Thomas "earn it" as he closes in on an unlikely return to the AFL side after being banished on two separate occasions this year.
The troubled 23-year-old is back at the club and could potentially play in the next fortnight despite all of his off-field troubles this year.
Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes suggested that Thomas should not be allowed to play for an extended period.
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"It's the right call to not play him this week, but don't play him for six weeks," he told Nine's Footy Classified.
"The seriousness of the allegations towards him, I didn't think he'd play again. To think that you could even consider playing him in the next fortnight.
Troubled youngster Tarryn Thomas incredibly appears just weeks away from an AFL return Morgan Hancock via Getty Images
"I love the Tyson Stengle story, go and make them earn it and make them earn it for a long period of time to show us how much you want to be an AFL player.
"Give me a six-week body of work before you even think about playing him."
Cornes was backed up by Essendon great Matthew Lloyd, who said he wouldn't "play (Thomas) for a while".
Thomas' potential return comes with the Kangaroos in freefall, having lost their past seven games after a stunning 2-0 start under Alastair Clarkson's tenure.
While Clarkson has been encouraged by his players' effort, Cornes wasn't buying it.
"I don't want to hear about injuries or skill errors or clangers, I want to hear about effort," he said.
The honeymoon period from the first two weeks of the season seem like a distant memory for Alastair Clarkson AFL Photos via Getty Images
"Alastair Clarkson gets to the press conference and talks about skill errors and injuries, (but) why are the players not playing for him?
"This legendary coach who they're paying a million dollars a year for five years, that would've been the baseline that I would've expected from an Alastair Clarkson-coached team, not effort."
The Kangaroos rank near the bottom of the AFL in almost every major statistic, and Lloyd said that is a major issue for the four-time premiership winner.
"You look at these numbers, what does he hang his hat on?" he said.
"You want to walk into your players and go, 'OK, we're going well in this area'. I look at it and tackles might be a nice place to start, they're ranked 18th. It might be that (they're) defending the ground well, that's 17th, (they're) scoring OK, that's 17th.
"That's the issue for him, that there's nothing for him to walk in and sell to his players that they're going OK."
Cornes also said Clarkson was being let down by some of his high-priced players, namely Aidan Corr and Griffin Logue, who are both signed to lucrative five-year deals.
"They've got some issues with their recruits," he said.
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"Aidan Corr might be the worst five-year contract since Jared Polec.
"The lack of anything that he gives in terms of influencing a game, I was so disappointed to see him punching someone in the face off the ball and having a decision overturned at the top of the goalsquare and then missing a week when they've already got six injuries.
"The Griffin Logue one, that amount of time, that tenure and that money for what he is producing, you've got to be really careful who you give your long-term contracts to."
