Captain Jordan Dawson is appealing for Adelaide’s angry fans to forgive a goal umpire for his season-defining mistake.
The Crows were denied a go-ahead goal against Sydney with 70 seconds remaining in their one-point loss which tipped them from the finals race on Saturday night.
A Ben Keays kick was ruled a behind when the goal umpire incorrectly deemed the ball had brushed the post, and the AFL has apologised to Adelaide for the error.
“It’s a very crucial time of the year, and a game and a moment, for us,” Dawson told reporters on Monday.
“We want to show our disappointment.
“But we also don’t want that umpire to feel like he has cost us the year.
“Because we know there have been plenty of games where we probably should have won and have been in these positions that we have lost and cost ourselves through our own error.
“There’s nothing that can be done. I watched it a couple of times but there’s no point continually watching it and getting frustrated by it.”
The defeat ruined any chance of the Crows breaking a finals drought stretching back to 2018.
John Longmire, coach the seventh-placed Swans who are now assured a finals spot, sympathised.
“It’s important to acknowledge how disappointed I’d be if I was Matthew Nicks,” Longmire told reporters.
“There’s no question that you get disappointed when those kinds of things happen.
“They don’t happen very often but if you’re on the wrong side of it, you get very disappointed.
“The AFL have acknowledged that. It’s disappointing for the AFL, disappointing for the umpire involved. We feel for him as well.
“Footy can be a cruel game sometimes.”
The AFL has stood down the goal umpire, who didn’t seek a video review, for the rest of the season.
“That is what the technology has been brought in for, to use in cases and scenarios like that where the decision, the umpire is not sure,” Dawson said.
“He obviously thought it was a point and he stuck with the decision.
“Obviously for us it’s disappointing because we would have loved to have used the technology in that scenario.
“But it’s just one of those things.
“It’s human error. Don’t take it out on the goal umpire because at the end of the day we didn’t play the footy we wanted to.”
The Crows are in 13th spot, having lost five games by six points or less this season.
Two of those were against table-topping Collingwood.
After a two-point defeat to the Magpies on June 25, the AFL also apologised to the Crows for a field umpire missing a free kick to Dawson in the dying seconds which would have offered a relatively simple shot at goal.
(AAP)
The Western Bulldogs’ season is in tatters after a shock loss to lowly West Coast left their finals chances out of their own hands – and according to David King, a summer of significant change is required to turn the team’s fortunes around.
Since making a grand final in 2021, the Bulldogs and coach Luke Beveridge have become a lightning rod for criticism after a mediocre last two seasons; sitting ninth with just one home-and-away round to go, they will need to upset Geelong in Geelong and have GWS lose to Carlton in order to make finals.
Speaking on Fox Footy’s First Crack, King wondered if the Dogs have ‘lost faith’ in Beveridge, their 2016 premiership coach, and described their set-up as ‘broken’.
“I’m just asking the question – have they lost faith as a group that this is the group that can charge forward, whether it be the coaching, whether it be the message, whether it be the senior coach, whether it be the decisions that are made?” King said.
“This is not the team that we thought they’d be. They’re a top-four list by their own admission.
“You couldn’t see this list missing the eight. Well, right now, you can mount a case they will. That’s a disaster.
“Clearly it’s not a happy camp and I want to know why. Who’s taking responsibility for this? Because, aside from Marcus Bontempelli, the fluctuation of the rest of them has been wild.
“I just wonder whether that is motivation, or is it just a football program with constant query? Is he [Beveridge] the right man? Are they giving us the right education to actually give us an advantage on the competition? Because right now, they don‘t have one.”
The Bulldogs were 7-3 after 10 rounds but have since won just four of 12 matches, with their loss to the Eagles their fifth in that period by seven points or less.
For King, the Dogs might benefit from missing finals in the long run, as it would make the club’s poor performance abundantly clear.
“They’ve got a lot of problems – it would actually probably best serve them to miss the eight and have it be as brutal as it can be and find those answers,” he said.
“Right now, it‘s just wandering aimlessly.
“Something’s not right in the West. If they just roll on, this will happen again next year, and they will never become that top four list they promise.”
The shock loss to the Eagles, who sat last on the ladder heading into the clash without a win away from Optus Stadium in 2023, has piled the pressure on Beveridge, who is contracted until the end of 2025.
Speaking after the match, the embattled coach said he was ‘comfortable’ with his future at the club.
“Sometimes you need to evolve, and if at the moment, we’re in this sort of static area of a performance point of view, we’ll work out why it is,” Beveridge said.
“But from a leadership perspective and coaching the team and the club, I’m really comfortable with my tenure.”
Marcus Bontempelli and his Western Bulldogs teammates look dejected as they leave the field. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
Besieged West Coast coach Adam Simpson has reflected on how tanking allegations ‘cut deep’ following the Eagles’ extraordinary upset of the Western Bulldogs.
Just days after the club’s board began contemplating Simpson’s future, West Coast triumphed at Marvel Stadium to lift themselves off the bottom of the ladder for the first time since May 21.
It was just the Eagles’ fifth victory in their past 48 games.
Two weeks ago, West Coast fell one point shy of defeating Essendon at the same venue.
The Eagles’ performance late in that game was questioned and allegations of tanking were directed towards Simpson and the club.
“Last week was pretty heavy but I was more disappointed about the criticism about the tanking stuff, like that that probably cut me a bit deeper, so put that to bed [with the win against the Bulldogs],” Simpson said on Sunday.
“It was a flippant comment by a few people about the Essendon game and strategically we tried to manipulate the games that we lose, and that’s just not on.
“It’s hard to respond because you don’t want to, but I have now so bad luck.
“We move on real quick, not stressed too much, but at the time, thinking ‘really? Is that what you think we do?’.
“As a club, we would take this win any day of the week to help build what we’re trying to do in the future.”
West Coast will avoid claiming the club’s second wooden spoon if North Melbourne fail to beat Gold Coast in Hobart next week.
The Eagles had been in the box-seat to snare Harley Reid, this year’s nominal No.1 draft pick, for most of the season as they occupied the bottom of the table.
From country Victoria, Reid has been at the centre of intense speculation over his future, with whispers he would prefer to not move to Western Australia.
A SEN report this week claimed Reid had liked an Instagram post about Simpson’s job at the Eagles being discussed.
“I feel for Harley,” Simpson said.
“My son’s [mate] liked the same thing, so maybe that should be on the back page.
“I said ‘what’s going on? Three of your mates, take them to footy training all the time and they want me to get get the flick?
“Just had a laugh. Reckons he just likes everything, this kid.”
The only downside for the Eagles was a hamstring injury to Eagles premiership hero Elliot Yeo, who will miss the farewell game for club legends Shannon Hurn and Luke Shuey against Adelaide on Saturday night.
(AAP)
Sydney’s Tom McCartin will miss their elimination final through suspension unless the Swans successfully challenge his ban at the AFL tribunal.
McCartin’s season might be over after his high bump on Adelaide’s Shane McAdam earned him a two-game ban for rough conduct.
The Swans defender and McAdam were going for the ball in the frenetic last term of Saturday night’s controversial one-point Sydney win when they collided.
McAdam was laid out in the incident, which was graded careless, high impact and high contact.
Collingwood will also weigh up whether to take Beau McCreery’s one-game ban to the tribunal.
McCreery is currently sidelined for Friday night’s match against Essendon after he was suspended for a dangerous tackle on Brisbane’s Darcy Wilmot.
If the suspension stands, McCreery would return for the Magpies’ qualifying final.
Geelong veteran Mitch Duncan joins McCreery as the latest players punished under the AFL’s season-long crackdown on dangerous tackles.
With the reigning premiers out of finals contention, Duncan’s season is over after he was suspended for one game over his sling tackle on Jack Higgins.
(AAP)
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has defended tagger Finn Maginness, after he copped criticism from Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin following another successful run-with job on Demons star Clayton Oliver.
Maginness restricted the ball magnet to just 14 disposals in the Hawks’ 27-point loss at the MCG, the second-lowest tally of his career and worst since the fourth game of his career in 2016 – just nine of those disposals came in the first three quarters before the tag was lifted with the Hawks chasing the game.
However, the emerging tagger’s latest scalp was panned by Goodwin, who claimed Maginness ‘clearly… doesn’t want the ball’ post-match.
“Clearly Finn Maginness is someone that doesn’t want the ball, so that makes it a bit challenging and a bit frustrating,” Goodwin said, while also praising Oliver for his ability to still contribute to the win despite the close attention.
“He’s [Oliver] a player where we used where we wanted to put him to maximise the team’s benefit and I thought he was outstanding for the team,. That’s what we want from those type of guys, if they’re in that situation how can they help the team.”
In response, Mitchell disputed the claims against Maginness, who won 13 disposals of his own – just one fewer than Oliver.
“He runs off when he sees the chance,” Mitchell said of his stopper.
“Every team in the competition debates whether or not to shut down someone because it obviously plays against some of your own roles and we need to continue to harness what that looks like with Finn and his defensive role.
“We don’t rate his game on his possession count, so his motivation to get the ball… as he evolves, he might be able to find a bit more of the footy.
“While Finn is shutting down opposition key players, he’s going to be really helpful for us.”
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has labelled his team’s handling of a head knock to Tom Jonas as brave, saying the club wants to lead the way on the concussion front.
Jonas was left with blood streaming from his forehead after a nasty clash of heads with teammate Ryan Burton during the second quarter of Sunday’s 16-point win over Fremantle in Perth.
The Port captain passed a head injury assessment (HIA) test on the bench and returned to the field in the third quarter.
He then came off again to do a more comprehensive SCAT5 test in the change rooms later in the third term just to be sure.
Jonas was again cleared to return, and he played out the match with no issues.
It came less than three weeks after Port were fined $100,000 for breaching the AFL’s rules following the club’s failure to send defender Aliir Aliir in for a concussion test.
Hinkley feels like Port got it right this time, saying they are now being even more cautious than necessary.
“He was off once with a head clash. He got a cut in his head and had to come off before halftime,” Hinkley said of the Jonas knock.
“The reality was being where we’ve been, after half time we just thought, ‘You know what… let’s just do the right thing. Let’s not take that chance. Let’s go and do the head assessment, make sure we were really, really clear that he was OK’.
“We’ve lived a pretty poor experience recently and we needed to make sure we didn’t go through something anywhere near similar.
“I was really pleased with the decision to do what we did. I thought it was really, really brave because we’ve been under the microscope for those things.
“We made a really, really cautious decision to make sure that we actually did everything we should have, because we want to lead the way with that now.
“We don’t want to be causing any problems.”
Port star Zak Butters finished with 32 disposals, three clearances and a goal to lead his team to victory, while Connor Rozee, Ollie Wines and Jason Horne-Francis were also influential.
Darcy Byrne-Jones booted two goals in the final quarter to kill off Fremantle’s fightback.
The 11.8 (74) to 8.10 (58) win kept the Power (16-6) in third spot, with Brisbane 11.7 percentage points ahead of them in second place.
For Port to nab second spot, they need Brisbane to lose to St Kilda at the Gabba next Saturday, and then take care of business at home to Richmond next Sunday.
(AAP)
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