The AFL is refusing to further investigate an “unexplained” interchange blunder that potentially robbed Collingwood of victory over Hawthorn late last month.
The two sides played out an enthralling draw after Dylan Moore kicked a goal on the final siren — but new vision and data shows the Hawks should have been called for a free kick before the set shot.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: AFL bombshell as vision shows Collingwood robbed of crucial win
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The AFL’s official count has Hawthorn maxed out at 75 interchanges but manual logs by Champion Data and Channel 7 showed the Hawks reached 76.
The discrepancy occurred in the back half of the first quarter and, having gone unnoticed, it results in a 76th interchange at the end of the game.
Hawthorn captain James Sicily leaves the field and is replaced by Jack Gunston just as Moore is at the top of his mark.
The crucial factor, as revealed by 7NEWS reporter Xander McGuire on The Agenda Setters, is that the umpire has not called full-time.
“The AFL has conceded this is counted as an interchange,” he said.
“By the book, at this very moment, a 50m penalty and opposition free kick should have been paid against Hawthorn, paid towards Collingwood and that would’ve ended the game in that very moment — which means Collingwood would have won by six points.”
The AFL said there are “mitigating circumstances” that can exclude an interchange from the cap of 75 — such as when there is a head injury assessment, a blood rule, a stretcher, extreme injury or extended medical assessment, or when a player is ordered off.
“Now I have spoken to Hawthorn — they have said none of these incidents happened, from their records, during this Round 8 game, meaning there is no reason that there should be a discrepancy between the AFL’s count and what happened with Champion Data and Channel 7.
Vision of every single Hawthorn interchange showed no medical intervention that would necessitate any of the mitigating circumstances.
“It’s only a few seconds but it would have changed the result, clearly, because Hawthorn had broken the rules by having an extra interchange,” Caroline Wilson said.
“Are the AFL conceding now that they made an error?”
McGuire bluntly replied: “No.”
“I spoke to the AFL across the weekend. At first, they said that they would look into it,” he went on.
“They’ve come back to me and said that they would stand by their count of 75.
“I asked them how they would describe the discrepancy between Champion Data and Channel 7’s numbers and their numbers — they had no example of why a Hawthorn player coming off should have counted.
“I asked if they had, like Channel 7 and Champion Data, gone through the logs manually and counted all of the interchanges. They said no, and it’s my understanding that they did not also reach out to the Hawthorn Football Club like we did to ascertain the information that they don’t have the record.”
McGuire added Collingwood have declined to comment publicly “at this stage for fear of coming across as having sour grapes”.
“But I think if this heats up then they may get involved,” he said.
Kane Cornes declared the Magpies “should protest, really, because it’s so obvious”.
“The evidence is there that the result should be their win,” he said.
“And in the context of the season and how the ladder looks for Hawthorn and Collingwood, this is a major, major story.”
The Hawks (7-3-1) sit fourth while the Magpies (5-5-1) are 10th, in the last wildcard spot.
If the AFL reversed the result Hawthorn would drop one spot while Collingwood would move up one — but with more than half the season still to play, the two points could prove crucial either way.
The infamous ‘sirengate’ incident in 2006 led to the AFL Commission reversing the result from a draw to a one-point win for Fremantle.
The latest scandal comes amid a slew of timekeeping errors this season, including another on Sunday.
