Craig McRae said after Collingwood’s heart-stopping win over the Crows on Sunday night he “lost his mind” after a moment of farcical umpiring.
The Collingwood coach was more mild-manned in his assessment of the umpires than most with footy commentators in meltdown mode after some baffling umpire decisions.
Collingwood great Dane Swan called for an investigation and singled out one whistleblower as a “dead set cheat”.
It didn’t seem to matter when the final siren sounded on the Magpies’ latest insane comeback victory, beating Adelaide 8.11 (59) to 7.16 (58) in a one-point thriller to move to the top of the AFL ladder.
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However, the umpire anger was bubbling away throughout the game as the match finished with a 28-18 free kick count in the Crows’ favour — and the situation exploded in the fourth quarter when Collingwood defender Nathan Murphy was taken out.
With just under 11 minutes to play, and with his side trailing by eight points, Murphy was left dazed and bleeding from the nose after a marking contest with Darcy Fogarty where he appeared to be taken front-on and high by the Crows forward.
No free kick was paid and to rub salt into the Pies’ wounds Jordan De Goey was penalised for deliberate out-of-bounds as the play went dangerously close to Murphy and the club’s medical staff as they left the field.
“I don’t know if there’s footage of me, but I lost my mind,” McRae said.
“Whether it was a mark or a free kick, you could argue either, but then (Murphy) had blood and he’s trying to exit the field and we didn’t get a chance to replace the player in a critical moment.
“I was astounded by that.
“He’s fine, but he had blood, I don’t know whether we need an explanation for it.
“I probably won’t search for one, but I just found it staggering.
“(De Goey) almost hit the doc, isn’t there a duty of care there?
“You can go through every decision they made or didn’t make, but that’s not where we live.
“We make way more mistakes than they do … you make mistakes, you move on, that’s the way I look at it.”
Ash Johnson was also unlucky not to be awarded a free kick in the goal square after he was taken high in the dying minutes.
There are plenty of angry football commentators demanding an explanation.
Swan posted on Twitter during the match: “Umpire 19 is a dead set cheat. Should be investigated this week”.
He also posted after the match Collingwood’s dramatic comeback win “was never really in doubt even with the umpires trying their best to change the result”.
Grant Thomas said the umpiring was “officially a joke” and described some of the calls as “very suspicious”.
Footy broadcaster Andy Maher wrote: “Horrific umpiring. Four of them. Hard to believe.”
Gary Lyon, in commentary for Fox Footy, also couldn’t believe no free kick was awarded to Murphy.
Mark Stevens also posted on Twitter the victory was “justice” for the Magpies after a “raft of bad calls” by the umpires.
It comes just days after Adelaide Crows icon Graham Cornes declared there was a “Victorian bias” that was resulting in umpires giving the Crows and Port Adelaide a bad run.
What will hurt Crows fans now is that their side led for all-but the final 30 seconds of the match when Steele Sidebottom put Collingwood ahead for the first time in the game.
Sidebottom missed the goal but the behind was all Collingwood needed to take a one-point lead and hit the front for the first time in the game with 20 seconds remaining.
“It’s another Collingwood miracle and we shouldn’t be surprised,” Fox Footy’s Anthony Hudson said.
The Crows only had themselves to blame with their inaccurate goalkicking (15 behinds).
“They just refuse to give up, they play four quarters and they get the job done,” Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall said on Fox Footy.
“Having said that, Adelaide have just lost the unlosable. Poor goalkicking is poor football.
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“Sorry Crows fans, that game should have been done to bits. You gave them a sniff and they took it.”
To top it off, the victory means Collingwood is now on top of the ladder for the first time since 2012.
— with NCA NewsWire
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