Melbourne legend Garry Lyon and former Essendon captain Tim Watson has slammed the "horrendous" umpiring performance on Friday night, and suggested home ground advantage is now more important than ever.
The Crows won the free kick count 28-14 on at the Adelaide Oval against Sydney, but were unable to translate that onto the scoreboard, and lost to the Swans by three points in a nail-biter.
Despite the loss, Lyon still believes a home-ground advantage is going to be so important in the upcoming finals series, given the "noise of affirmation".
โMore than ever before is home ground advantage in the finals going to be significant because of the noise of affirmation,โ Lyon toldย SEN Breakfastย on Monday morning.
In statistics released by Champion Data over the past week, finals bound sides Port Adelaide (+295), Geelong (+211) and Adelaide (+187) all have a substantial positive free kick differential at their home grounds over the past 10 years.
In 2017 alone, both Geelong (435) and Adelaide (425) are inside the top three for free kicks for, with both sides having a home-ground advantage that other Victorian sides don't.
โI donโt like to ever talk about the umpiring but the bias against Sydney on Friday night was horrendous,โ Tim Watson said.
โThe umpires will come out today and say every one of those Adelaide free kicks were there and they may have been. But conversely, there were so many times Sydney didnโt get rewarded a free kick because there was no noise.โ
As it stands, no finals will be in Victoria in week one, with Adelaide and GWS hosting qualifying finals, and Sydney and Port Adelaide housing elimination finals.
