‘Going to bite you on the a***’: Eagles game highlights flaw with timekeeping flexibility, says Nick Riewoldt

It’s the timekeeping quirk that is threatening to “bite the AFL on the a***” if it’s not fixed, according to Nick Riewoldt - and it was on full display during Sunday night’s West Coast game. The Seven analyst highlighted an issue in the opening minutes of the match, where a Geelong shot at goal was punched back into play on the line and play allowed to continue. After a passage that saw the Eagles try to clear their defensive 50, only for Bailey Smith to mark and set up a shot at goal, the game paused as a score review was conducted to see if the call cleared the goal line. While the decision was ultimately ruled correct, Riewoldt said it was a concern that the league was currently unable to add time back on to the clock, as they ideally would have done if a score had been the ruling. “Now we decide to do the goal review, but we’ve lost 14 seconds,” Riewoldt said on Seven’s Agenda Setters while walking through a replay of the passage of play. “The trouble is, we can’t put that time back on the clock. “So, if that’s a point, we lose that time. The AFL don’t have that mechanism with the timekeepers.” Riewoldt said he feared an embarrassing situation for the league if time was scrubbed off in a close game. “You can put a picture of your five-year-old into ChatGPT and see what they’re going to look like when they’re 50, but we can’t put 14 seconds back on a clock,” he said. “Fix it, AFL. It is going to bite you on the a***, big time.”