Tigers to protest over 'lost' seconds
Matt Burgan
richmondfc.com.au
12:07 AM Sun 04 May, 2008
RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace says the club will "absolutely" be making a complaint to the AFL after it is believed roughly 15 seconds were lost during the dying stages of the Tigers dramatic three-point loss to St Kilda at Telstra Dome on Saturday night.
A week after a timekeeper error occurred during Geelong's one-point win over Fremantle at Subiaco Oval, seconds again went missing in another AFL match where the result went down to the wire.
Wallace said the club would confront the AFL about the issue to ensure "the professionalism and integrity" of the competition remained paramount.
"We're going to end up with talk-back radio for seven days again over a clock situation we should be talking about the feats of [St Kilda's] Stephen Milne and [Richmond's] Matthew Richardson playing the best football of his life," Wallace said during his post-match media conference.
"Those are the things we should be talking about from the game not talking about things that can be controlled."
It is understood the seconds were lost after Kelvin Moore's shot at goal hit the post late in the game and time-on was not called.
Soon after, Tiger Jack Riewoldt had a shot at goal after the final siren, but his kick from outside 50m did not register a score.
Wallace said had the seconds not been lost in the process, Riewoldt's position could have been different and the four points may not have ended up with St Kilda.
"How do you lose 14 seconds in a game of football we'd love to have that 14 seconds with Jack Riewoldt, with the ball and be able to make a decision about it," he said.
"We have no doubt that after the Kel Moore shot on goal and the result and kick-out came out that the clock continued to run down.
It was sitting right in front of me in the box and it continued to run down and it didn't re-set.
"Whether it was 14 or 17 [seconds] it was certainly over 10 seconds of lost play and we'd love to have that 10 seconds to be able to make the right decisions at the end of the game."
Wallace also suggested the AFL needed to be careful handing out financial penalties for rule breaches.
"As soon as you're in a losing situation, you get the run of sour grapes when this sort of thing happens, but we are playing in such a professional industry, he said.
The AFL has such stringent rules and restrictions on us as a group as a football division and we get fined if we don't blow our noses correctly in the result of a game.
"Over the last few days, we've had interchange sanctions come to the club and the [message] said we'd have strong fines if there were any indiscretions in relation to [the] interchange.
"We are playing in a super professional sport here. It cannot be making mistakes about that. Can we have a fining system and go to the AFL and actually want to fine them if they want to fine us?
"We probably had someone step over the line or do the wrong thing in the interchange today and we'll get slapped with a please explain why. Well, who explains to us?
But Wallace stressed that Richmond lost the match due to its own missed opportunities.
"We'll wear the fact that we lost the game no issue with that but there's got to be a professionalism that lifts the standard that those sorts of things don't happen, particularly [when it's happened] a couple of weeks in a row," he said.
Asked what could be done about the situation, Wallace said, "I'm coaching the side. It's hard enough for me to know what's got to be done to get us over the line to win the game.
"It's somebody else's responsibility to tell you that they shouldn't be having the clock run down like that."
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