AFL 2020, Round 7 | St Kilda defeat Adelaide Crows in 23-point win

St Kilda have inflicted Adelaide’s 10th straight loss but with fans in the stands, a hail of boos have exposed the AFL’s “lottery”.

Dean Kent celebrates two fourth quarter goals.

The Adelaide Crows’ disastrous season has extended to 0-7 with 10 straight losses after a 12.6 (78) to 8.7 (55) defeat at the hands of St Kilda.

While St Kilda led from beginning to end, Adelaide were well and truly in their clash against St Kilda until midway through the final quarter when Taylor Walker booted his second goal to make it a nine-point ball game.

But the Saints clicked into gear with three late goals to open up the 23-point margin.

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Unfortunately the umpiring was in the spotlight with Fox Footy commentator Jonathan Brown admitting the umpires “had a bad night” with controversial moments for both sides littering the contest, much to the chagrin of fans.

From the commentators have slammed an “ugly” moment in the early exchanges between the teams.

The Saints kicked the first goal in the clash after Adelaide’s Ben Keays gave away a free kick, but was unhappy when he was pushed after the whistle.

The kick went to St Kilda’s Jade Gresham who kicked around the corner and hit the post in a disappointing kick.

But Keays ran over and knocked him down with the commentators discussing it should be out of the game.

Ben Keays steamrolls Jade Gresham

Eddie McGuire said it should get out of the game.

“See this routine of where players go up and push blokes over? It’s going to be in the gun,” he said. “It’s coming up big time in discussions and I know (AFL Operations Manager) Stephen Hocking doesn’t like it at all and there are a lot of people who don’t.”

Jonathan Brown said “It’s an ugly look”, while Nick Riewoldt add “It’s not tough”.

“If you did it 30 years ago, you would have copped one straight in the mouth, “ he said. “You obviously can‘t do that any more.”

“All this routine, it‘s not got a fan at AFL House I can promise you,” McGuire added.

It could be another thing for the umpires to worry about with the holding the ball issue taking plenty of focus.

But with a crowd in at Adelaide Oval adding an excellent atmosphere, the umpiring came under the microscope with some divisive calls.

Taylor Walker kicked the first one for the Crows after a contentious call after seemingly going nowhere near the ball and copping the smallest of contract with Brown saying there was “not a lot in it”.

The Saints’ Bradley Hill then got a very generous holding the ball call when he was given plenty of time to get rid of the ball. And the contentious calls going all the way through.

The fourth quarter started with a Saints goal for Dean Kent off a holding the ball free kick, when McGuire said it may have been a push in the back and was surprised by the decision.

“It’s just a lottery Ed,” Riewoldt added.

Holding the ball is in the spotlight again.

Despite being down the entire game, the Crows were hitting back in the fourth quarter having narrowed the scoreline to 16-points.

Walker took a belter of a mark, going high over the top to make the grab about 25m out but the umpires didn’t pay the mark much to the incredulity of commentators.

Bad call on Tex Walker mark. Wonder if Leigh Colbert is watching and just yelled out: "Karma!" 😂#AFLCrowsSaints

— Rohan Connolly (@rohan_connolly) July 20, 2020

Oh my that was definitely a mark. #AFLCrowsSaints

— Jack Hudson (@jhudson_10) July 20, 2020

He then got paid a more on the 50m arc soon after but pushed it across the face before kicking his second for the match with 9:24 remaining, making a nine point ball-game at 9.4 (58) to 7.7 (49).

But it was where the joy stopped for the Crows with the Saints kicking three straight goals to wrap up the 23-point win.

Fans were furious over the umpiring, savaging the officials for their performance.

Swans legend Jude Bolton slammed the calls and called for a rollback in changes.

“Baffled by some of the umpiring decisions,” he wrote. “Incredibly tough gig due to constant changing of rules & interpretations.

“In a situation now, where we need the AFL to unravel some of the changes brought in. Holding the ball needs an overhaul.”

Umpiring going about as well as Kanye’s presidential rally today #AFLCrowsSaints

— Campbell brown (@Browndogg_30x) July 20, 2020

The umpiring has never been worse than it has been tonight. AFL has to take a decent look at what the hell is going on. Absolutely just raffling it.#AFLCrowsSaints

— jackson ryan (@dctrjack) July 20, 2020

Umpires need to put themselves in the players shoes! Players are so focused on the ball that sometimes they can’t hear the umpires. I couldn’t even hear the crowd when I was playing cause I was that focused on the footy #AFLCrowsSaints

— Bailey Rice (@baileyrice_) July 20, 2020

Hate to say it but this is the worst display of @AFL umpiring I have ever seen. #AFLCrowsSaints

— Andrew Capel (@andrewcapel) July 20, 2020

Astonishing that the umpiring was worse than the Crows play tonight. I’d didn’t think that could be possible #AFLCrowsSaints

— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) July 20, 2020

Post-game, Riewoldt said he had no idea went holding the ball would be called.

“We watch a lot of footy and I have to admit, I have no idea which way some of these decision will go,” he said.

Jason Dunstall replied: “I tell you what though, regardless of whether you get them all right or wrong, I like what it’s done to the game because what it means now is that the players are desperate to get the ball out. Inevitably, it will come out. They don’t hold onto it and go ‘we’ll have a stoppage here’.”

“It’s going to start to deincentivise winning the footy though,” Riewoldt finished.

St Kilda coach Brett Ratten was asked about the holding the ball and didn’t really want to answer it.

“Yeah, anyway, um, that’s not my job to do that,” he said. “Sometimes it would be pretty hard to be a ball player and put your hands on it. We have to be careful that we haven’t got players just sitting there waiting to tackle players. That’s not how we want to play the game. But it’s a fine line, you’ve got to be given some sort of chance to get rid of it. But we’ll leave it to the umpires.”