Essendon have escaped with a heart-stopping three-point win over Adelaide after having a last-second umpiring decision fortuitously go their way.
The Bombers were hanging on to their slender lead for dear life in the dying minutes of the game, but looked set to cough it up after the siren when big man Sam Draper found himself at the bottom of a pack inside Adelaide’s forward 50.
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Draper appeared to drag the ball under the pack with just seconds remaining on the clock and was jumped on by Taylor Walker, who trapped the ball underneath.
Crows players from everywhere appealed for holding the ball to be paid to Walker, who would have had a set shot to win the game after the siren from well within range of goal.
But the umpire was unmoved, blowing the whistle for a ball-up, just as the siren sounded to end the all-time thriller.
A furious Walker remonstrated with the umpire after the siren, but it was too late as the Bombers escaped the lion’s den with the four points.
Channel 7 expert Luke Hodge was on Walker’s side.
“That is holding the ball,” he said moments after the result was final.
“You’ve got four umpires, one of them should have seen that.”
James Brayshaw added: “It’s a brave umpire that pays that in the last second of the game.
“He probably dodged a bullet there, the big man.”
Matthew Richardson said the moment would “be analysed for days”.
“It was line ball,” Richardson added.
“There was one angle that looked like it (the ball) got pushed back under him. Then there was the other angle that looked like he was definitely lying on top of it.
“If that’s anywhere else on the ground at any other time, it would have been called.”
Brian Taylor went straight to Draper after the game to get a first-hand account of the controversy.
“I can’t breathe, that was intense,” the ruck said.
Asked whether he thought it should have been a free kick, Draper said: “I don’t think so, I think I got pushed or my legs gave way — I don’t know, either one.
“What else can I do?”
More to come …