The AFL has confirmed that 29 seconds were lost in the second quarter of St Kilda’s narrow win over GWS on Saturday.
Both clubs have been informed that a technical glitch in the second quarter of the game saw half a minute vanish from the clock.
It happened after Saints forward Max Hall kicked a goal, with 29 seconds left in the second quarter.
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The clock suddenly jumps from 0:29 to 0:00 while the Saints celebrate a goal. Fox Footy
The clock stopped at 29 seconds, but as he was celebrating with teammates, it suddenly went to zero, before disappearing from the screen altogether.
Upon the game being restarted, the half time siren immediately blew. The league says the 29 seconds were not added back to the clock due to a technical glitch.
St Kilda led by 32 points at half time following Hall’s goal and looked in full control, but GWS stormed back into the game in the final term, getting within four points, before ultimately running out of time.
The comeback didn’t occur until the end of the game, but anything could have happened in the final 29 seconds of the second quarter.
The AFL’s timekeepers remain unaware as to what caused the issue at ENGIE Stadium in Sydney, but the league is blaming a technical error.
“Post a second-quarter goal by St Kilda player Max Hall, a technical issue caused the countdown clock to jump from 29 seconds to 00 seconds, effectively ending the quarter,” an AFL statement said on Monday.
Max Hall and Jack Buckley contest the footy. via Getty Images
“Upon a full review, it has been determined that 29 seconds should have been added back onto the timeclock.
“In the moment, the timekeepers were unaware of the technical error.
“There is a manual backup process for the timekeepers to resort to, however in this instance that did not happen.
“Ahead of the next round of matches, the AFL will undertake re-testing of the relevant timekeeping technology and reinforce the manual backup process with all timekeepers.
“The GWS Giants and St Kilda football departments have been contacted today.”
It wasn’t the AFL’s only timekeeper issue in round two, with a clock malfunction also occurring during the Western Bulldogs’ win over Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval on Friday night.
Late in the fourth quarter the clock simply disappeared, and not just for those watching on television.
The clock vanishes with under 10 minutes to go in the Adelaide-Bulldogs game. Fox Footy
Both coaches confirmed they also lost sight of the countdown clock with about 10 minutes left in the contest, forcing both teams to scramble.
It then returned and disappeared again within the final five minutes of the game.
Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge commented on the situation after the match.
“No one knew what the time was until it got to about, gee what was it? There was about five or six minutes to go… everyone was flustered because you weren’t sure how urgent it was based on that clock ticking down,” he said.
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks said his club was equally affected.
“We didn’t have a clock. But then, that happens. My understanding is it was across the board, the whole stadium went down, so you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do in that moment,” Nicks said.