AFL world in uproar over 'horrific' umpiring farce in Collingwood victory

AFL fans and commentators have lashed out over the standard of umpiring in Collingwood's clash with Adelaide on Sunday after the Pies appeared to be dudded by a number of blatantly incorrect calls. The Magpies climbed to the top of the ladder after their latest incredible comeback, erasing a 22-point deficit in the final quarter to win 8.11 (59) to 7.16 (58).

However a number of farcical umpiring decisions left the AFL world speechless, and the majority went against Collingwood at the Adelaide Oval. The worst of the calls came early in the fourth quarter when Nathan Murphy was collected by a sickening high shot that left him bleeding from the nose and needing to leave the field.

'BAD AS I'VE SEEN': Alastair Clarkson ripped amid 'embarrassing' scenes

'PETTINESS': Brett Kirk caught in awkward scenes with Toby Greene

For some reason the umpires didn't call the high contact and let play continue as Murphy lay prone on the ground. If that decision wasn't bad enough, the umpires then caused outrage when they inexplicably let play restart while Murphy was still being taken from the field.

The ball spewed out towards the boundary line, where Jordan de Goey ended up soccering it out because he didn't want to clatter into Murphy - who was being ushered off the field by two trainers. Inexplicably, one umpire pinged de Goey for deliberate out of bounds and awarded the Crows a free kick.

De Goey and his teammates were left absolutely gobsmacked by the decision, with a number of angry Collingwood players remonstrating with the umpire. The official appeared to realise his mistake too late and didn't ping any of the Collingwood players for dissent.

AFL world left fuming over 'horrific' umpiring display

Collingwood coach Craig McRae later lashed out over the comical call. “I don’t know if there’s footage of me, but I lost my mind,” he said.

“Whether it was a mark or a free kick, you could argue either, but then (Murphy) had blood and he’s trying to exit the field and we didn’t get a chance to replace the player in a critical moment.

“I was astounded by that. He’s fine, but he had blood, I don’t know whether we need an explanation for it. I probably won’t search for one, but I just found it staggering.

“(De Goey) almost hit the doc, isn’t there a duty of care there? You can go through every decision they made or didn’t make, but that’s not where we live. We make way more mistakes than they do … you make mistakes, you move on, that’s the way I look at it.”

Fans and commentators were left seething at the decision, with many taking issue with a number of calls that went against Collingwood. The popular Twitter account 'Has the umpire made a bad decision' wrote: "Crows-Pies was possibly the worst umpired game I can remember in my time running these accounts."

Commentator Andy Maher tweeted: "Horrific umpiring. Four of them. Hard to believe."

Thankfully for Collingwood fans they managed to overcome the contentious umpiring, with Steele Sidebottom scoring the match-winning behind with 25 seconds remaining - the only time the Magpies were in front in the entire match. Of the last 12 games the Pies have trailed at the final break, they've now won nine times.

"It's incredible, isn't it?" McRae said. "There's just admiration for the never-give-up attitude and today was a different version of it again.

"We have got good method. So players go to a system that goes, 'We're behind, we need to win, so let's do this'. And they all know what they need to do through repetition of it."

with AAP

Sign up to our newsletter and score the biggest sport stories of the week.