AFL nice Nathan Buckley has referred to as on Adelaide to “hold the AFL to account” over the Ben Keays purpose debacle that “robbed” the Crows of enjoying finals in 2023.
Keays slotted his purpose with 71 seconds to go in opposition to Sydney – however his potential matchwinner was referred to as a behind by the purpose umpire and no evaluate was requested.
While the AFL has since confirmed the umpire was unsuitable and that Keays did kick the purpose, Adelaide’s one-point loss will stand – purely as a result of there was nonetheless time on the clock, and the kick didn’t come after full time.
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“Personally, I can’t believe Adelaide haven’t taken this further,” Buckley stated On the Couch.
“They would be sitting in ninth – 44 points with a higher percentage than teams below them on the same points and they could leapfrog GWS or Sydney above them playing West Coast in the last round.
“I think their best footy can contend in finals … have they exhausted all options?”
It’s the second time this season the AFL has been pressured to confess an umpiring error price the Crows after skipper Jordan Dawson wasn’t paid a excessive contact free kick in opposition to Collingwood, which might have given him the possibility to kick a match winner after the siren.
“You’re saying you would have sat at the table after that game and said ‘we’re not accepting this, let’s go and take this as far as you can?’,” host Garry Lyon requested Buckley.
“I reckon you need to!” he replied.
“Investigate it. Hold the AFL to account.
“That’s a game … four points they’ve been robbed of.
“If you look at the spectrum of the way you accept an occurrence like that, they were on the passive side.
“They’ve been stiff. Jordan Dawson did cop one on the chops – five losses now within a goal including the loss that wasn’t. If I’m an Adelaide supporter I want to hear they’ve exhausted all options.”
Fox Footy’s Jon Ralph confirmed the Crows have been left “seething” by the umpire’s mistake, however felt their best choice was to maneuver on – regardless of the loss ending their 2023 season.
“John Olsen the president today said we think we’ve been dudded out of eight premiership points,” Ralph stated.
“They had a board meeting hook up on Sunday and explored all those possibilities to potentially overturn (the Sydney win).
“They were seething.
“In the end there were two factors that saw them pulling up short of what would have been legal action and Supreme Court injunctions – the prospect of success, 70 seconds on the clock. This was not post match. The AFL rules are written really clearly – ‘Sirengate’ was two kicks by (St Kilda’s) Steven Baker both after the siren. That’s very different to an umpiring error with more than a minute on the clock.
“And they were also aware of the optics of it … If you’re going to take a shot at the AFL, it’s got to be a knockout blow. And this was not going to be a knockout blow.
“They considered all those things and just said we can’t win. We’ll have to move on.”
Fox Footy’s Gerard Whateley described the controversy as an “unholy mess” and was left adamant the error was “totally unacceptable”.
“Human error is one thing and it’s difficult to grasp but it’s born out of systematic failure,” he stated on AFL 360.
“This all starts with Tom Hawkins (in the 2009 grand final being awarded a goal from a kick that shaved the post) … here we are 15 years later and we solve nothing in real time with technology.
“It’s as useful as what you can do at home with your Foxtel remote – toggle it back and forth.
“This system has failed repeatedly, it has embarrassed itself at times.
“There is none of the specific technology being employed by the league to adjudicate its own game … and it’s always been unacceptable. If that was the very bottom level we were going to, we never should have implemented it.
“The final insult is that the best angle is from a punter in the crowd! C’mon!
“No one wants to know about this stuff until it stuffs the season and it stuffed the season on Saturday night.
“This should be the greatest finish that the competition has ever known – Adelaide is now denied the opportunity to go to West Coast to win their way into the eight.
“With a straight face we couldn’t enter next year without having this resolved (the score review system).”
AFL 360 co-host Jordan Lewis agreed the Crows had been “robbed” – not simply on the scoreboard however of finals expertise within the “embarrassing” mess.
“It leaves a sour taste in your mouth.”
Originally printed as ‘Hold the AFL to account’: Buckley desires ‘dudded’ Crows to take ‘unholy mess’ to court docket
Source: www.news.com.au
