Fox Footy commentators Garry Lyon and Jason Dunstall could hardly believe their eyes.
Amid the chaos of Saturday night’s Adelaide Oval thriller — which saw Adelaide claim a three-point win — Crows star Riley Thilthorpe was potentially fortunate to escape a last-minute free kick.
With just 57 seconds to play, Thilthorpe knocked the ball out of bounds to force a boundary throw-in.
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But with the ball bouncing along the line, the big forward got a toe to the footy, sending it further away from the boundary umpire.
But there was no whistle, much to the Fox Footy commentary team’s surprise.
“You can’t do that! You cannot do that Riley,” play-by-play caller Anthony Hudson said.
“He toed it away!”
Hall of Fame legend Jason Dunstall immediately suggested it should’ve been a free kick to Collingwood.
“How he (Thilthorpe) gets away with this … I don’t know how all the umpires miss this. This is time-wasting,” Dunstall told Fox Footy.
“He’s punched it out of bounds to start with, then he’s looking at it and toes it off the ground. It’s not by accident. There are umpires all around him and they don’t pay it.”
Melbourne champion Garry Lyon added: “I think it’s the non-free of the year.
“Now whether he’s trying to kick it up to himself or not is irrelevant, you’ve kicked the ball away at a critical time of the match.”
But the moment was missed as Adelaide would go on to hold on to victory.
Minutes earlier, Thilthorpe had plucked a strong contested mark then snapped a clutch set-shot goal to give Adelaide some breathing space.
“Guys like Riley don’t get any shorter as the game goes on as others get fatigued,” Crows coach Matthew Nicks told Fox Footy post-match.
“The work he’s done on his game … he’s been huge. He’s been a pro from day one.
“He just puts his body on the line, gets himself in line with the footy and just goes at it. Late, that was a massive mark and to be able to finish it off was important for us.”
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