AFL shaken up by ‘worst thing I’ve seen’ as ‘pest’ act blows up

The footy world is in meltdown over a divisive act that sparked wild scenes during five minutes of madness between the Swans and Crows.

The footy world has been divided over the five minutes of madness that saw the Swans blow the Crows to pieces on Saturday night.

Sydney came back from 23-points down in the second quarter after a second half blitz that saw them run away with a 42-point win that has put them 12 points clear on top of the AFL ladder.

Joel Amartey was the star of the show, booting nine goals as the Crows fell apart in the second half.

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The biggest implosion came late in the third quarter when Taylor Adams was awarded a free kick in front of goals after Adelaide’s Mitch Hinge cannoned into him following Amartey’s seventh goal.

There were wild scenes after Amartey had booted two goals in two minutes with Adams clearly rubbing salt into Adelaide’s wound with some verbal barbs directed at Hinge.

Adams had been sledging away at the Adelaide defence in the lead up to Amartey’s goal and had to be called away by the umpire as Amartey prepared for his shot on goal.

When the kick sailed through the big sticks, Adams ran up to Adelaide defenders flashing seven fingers — showing off his teammate’s bag of goals.

It was then that Hinge ran in and dropped Adams to the ground with an ugly shoulder charge that Adams couldn’t see coming.

Adams was left squirming on the ground and was awarded a free kick that gave the Swans another shot on goal — which Adams converted.

In the blink of an eye, the Swans had kicked four goals in five minutes.

Taylor Adams sucked them in. Photo: Fox Footy.

The footy world has been left divided by the heated moment with some accusing Adams of taking a dive, while other footy commentators have been scathing of Hinge’s brain snap.

Port Adelaide great Dom Cassisi said on Triple M that Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks should drop Hinge for the Crows’ next game, describing the off-ball bump as a “sniper” act.

“That’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” Cassisi said.

“If I was Nicks I’d drag him. That’s a coach killer. That does not help your footy club.

“He blindsided him. He snipered him. For no reason. He came from 10m away. There was no need for it.”

He went on to say: “If you’re Matthew Nicks you’d be tempted to drop him.”

Crows legend Mark Ricciuto said: “That’s just a total brain fade from one of the leaders of the Adelaide footy club”.

Channel 7’s Alister Nicholson said: “This is unravelling for Adelaide. Taylor Adams has been feld.

“They don’t know what’s going on here.”

Mitchell Hinge got sucked in. Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

However, other footy commentators believe Adams was to blame for the drama, suggesting he took a dive.

Bulldogs great Luke Darcy said on Seven there were “concerns around the game” that players are “sucking it in and getting a free kick”.

“You’re almost encouraging it, I reckon,” he said.

The most scathing comments about Adams came from former Post Adelaide captain Tom Jonas.

Jonas said on Triple M: “There’s been plenty of feeling in this contest tonight.

“One thing we know, Taylor Adams is a pest and he’s sucked them in and he baited them and he got what he wanted, which was a free kick. Really disappointing for the Crows.”

The onslaught continued in the fourth quarter as Amartey kicked his ninth goal before being taken off the field for a rest.

Before this match, the biggest bag of goals this season was six, which had been achieved by six different players this season.

However, Amartey blew that mark out of the water in what has become a rare sight in the modern game.

Come on Horse, Amartey deserved 10. Photo: Fox Sports

It didn’t look like it would be the case early as the Crows led by 23 points 19 minutes into the second term when Brayden Cook poked through a goal in heavy traffic.

But, as the Swans have been doing all season, the match flipped on a dime as Amartey went off.

The Swans season so far has been highlighted by their midfield superstars but in the first season post-Buddy Franklin, Amartey has put his hand up as the legend’s heir apparent.

When Franklin booted his 1000th goal, much of the talk around the milestone was around how no other player would join the elite 1000-goal club.

While Amartey is a long way from that mark, he became the first Swan since Franklin to boot at least nine goals, which Buddy last achieved in August 2017 (he kicked 10 in that game).

Heading into the match, the most Amartey had in a match was four goals.

Hell of a performance from Amartey. Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images

It even left 1254-goal AFL legend Jason Dunstall floored on Fox Footy, after he only had 10 touches for his nine goals.

“This is as efficient a performance as we’ve seen in a long long time,” Dunstall said. “When you have 10 kicks and you kick 9.1, you can’t do any better than that.

“It’s exciting to see a key forward go off like that.”

For the record, Dunstall kicked nine goals 31 times in his career.

Leigh Montagna pointed out that at halftime, Amartey had not had one touch.

But there were a few questions after Amartey was benched several times in the final quarter, including with a couple of minutes remaining.

On Channel 7, Alister Nicholson said: “This just isn’t on. You got to call that out. Joel Amartey on the bench with two minutes to go and he has kicked nine.”

“It’s an entertainment product partly, isn’t it. I know teams want to win, but this result is well and truly determined. Leave him out there and let’s have some late theatre.”

- With Jason Phelan, Newswire

Originally published as AFL shaken up by ‘worst thing I’ve seen’ as ‘pest’ act blows up