{"id":565635,"date":"2026-03-26T13:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/565635\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T13:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:05:10","slug":"adelaide-crows-penalised-for-last-touch-rule-free-kick-to-geelong-cats-review-centre-tom-atkins-and-zac-taylor-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/565635\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelaide Crows penalised for last touch rule, free kick to Geelong Cats, Review Centre, Tom Atkins and Zac Taylor, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AFL Review Centre (ARC) has come under intense scrutiny for not intervening with a contentious free kick during the last quarter of Geelong\u2019s eight-point win over Adelaide on Thursday night.<\/a><\/p>\n

Having played catch-up with the Cats all night, Matthew Nicks\u2019 Crows trailed by just two points halfway through the final term and looked a live chance of an unlikely win.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

However, what on first glance looked like an innocuous free kick in favour of the home side with the new \u2018last touch\u2019 rule, in fact should have been paid against them.<\/p>\n

Adelaide young gun Zac Taylor was penalised with the umpire believing the ball came off his boot and not that of Geelong stalwart Tom Atkins, where replays clearly showed last contact was with the latter.<\/p>\n

Taylor was evidently displeased at the umpire\u2019s decision to penalise him, with the free kick playing a large part in the home side kicking a goal moments later via Jack Martin.<\/p>\n

The Cats were the far better side at GMHBA Stadium as they continued their 23-year unbeaten streak against Adelaide at the home ground, however the ARC\u2019s decision to not quickly review the incident raised eyebrows in the Fox Footy box \u2014 given their decision earlier in the night to do so with a close call. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re under the impression that it gets reviewed upstairs, and it can be corrected or overturned as the first one was. So, why wasn\u2019t the second?\u201d two-time North Melbourne premiership player David King began post-game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a clear and obvious kick off the boot of Atkins. I don\u2019t know why the first one was paid that way, but certainly the second one was obviously and clearly off the boot of Atkins \u2014 who stooged the umpire beautifully.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did exactly what he was supposed to do \u2026 it comes off the left boot of Atkins, and charges over to say: \u2018That\u2019s my ball\u2019. In the end, he outsmarted the men in green.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three-time premiership Tiger Jack Riewoldt added: \u201cI think we\u2019d all be happy if the first one was left the way it was, and that one is just \u2018play on\u2019. I don\u2019t know whether we have to get into the minuscule detail of looking at it to the enth degree. But, if you\u2019re going to look at the first one, they have to look at the second.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey completely missed it there, the ARC, in what was a pretty pivotal moment. In the end, there\u2019s a few moments you could say: \u2018This may\u2019ve gone Adelaide\u2019s way\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked by journalists in his post-game press conference about the decision, Nicks was adamant it did not play a critical role in deciding the result.<\/p>\n

King ended by saying: \u201cIf we\u2019re going to be able to review these things chasing perfection, then that\u2019s across the board. You can\u2019t miss like that \u2026 the game had stopped, so there was enough time if the ARC was on the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a stretch to say that cost them the goal, but it certainly gave them the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL Review Centre (ARC) has come under intense scrutiny for not intervening with a contentious free kick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-565635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}