Adelaide Crows are cursed by costly AFL umpiring debacles | Paul Starick

The Izak Rankine blunder surely means the Crows are hardest hit by umpiring debacles, Paul Starick writes.

Adelaide has been cursed again by a costly umpiring debacle – the latest blunder cost Crows star Izak Rankine a potentially game-winning shot at goal.

The Crows surely have been hit hardest by umpiring mistakes in recent years – witness the outrage of being denied a finals campaign in 2023 after Ben Keays’ goal was called a point.

All too late, the AFL conceded the mistake after that outrage, just as it did when Jordan Dawson nearly had his head belted off against Collingwood at the MCG in the same year.

Fans are frustrated and fuming. They have every right to be. It’s not just one-eyed Crows supporters like me who have detected a decline in umpiring standards.

The four-umpire system, introduced in 2023, has made for inconsistent decisions, even across the personnel overseeing the same match. It surely makes recruitment and training harder too.

But Crows coach Matthew Nicks should be wary of being sucked in to blaming the umpires, even tacitly, for another close loss.

“I’d say there are some really frustrated fans of ours out there and I feel for them and I’m a little bit with them,” he said, after the loss to Gold Coast.

The AFL likely will concede the umpire made a mistake by not paying Rankine a mark or free kick.

But, like the Keays goal and Dawson free kick, that won’t change the final scoreboard.

As a longstanding Crows fan, my unsolicited advice to Nicks would be to focus on what he can control. Things like team selection and on-field performance.

The Crows have improved this year, as have Gold Coast. This was another gallant loss.

It’s time to start turning these close losses into narrow wins. The Crows need to put themselves in positions so the curse of poor umpiring doesn’t strike, yet again.

Paul Starick is an Adelaide Football Club foundation member.

Originally published as Adelaide Crows are cursed by costly AFL umpiring debacles | Paul Starick