The AFL never had a "call" to make on senior umpire Matt Stevic this week. Not for an instant was he in danger of being dropped three quarters of the way through the season.
An AFL social media post on Monday suggesting a "call" had been made was nonsensical.
The story attached - the fact Stevic had been assured selection, and not dropped - was also borderline at best, but no one is blaming the journo involved.
The post was the issue, because to make a "call" you have to deliberate and ponder. It was never happening!
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They were strange moments from the AFL's own website/socials department as the league's top office, correctly, fights for its umps amid fierce scrutiny.
The umps are miffed to be caught up in AFL in-house clickbait, and rightly so.
Stevic's mistake on Saturday night was a bad one, but North Melbourne didn't drop Wayne Carey when he fluffed an easy shot in the 90s.
And the AFL umpires' list has nowhere near the depth the Kangaroos enjoyed in those glory years.
Stevic may yet miss out on a 13th Grand Final due to the blooper, because it is always a tightly run race.
But imagine him running around in the twos when there are so many issues in umpiring at the moment and so many inexperienced whistle blowers cutting their teeth off Broadway.
All this could have been short-circuited had the AFL come out earlier and supported Stevic with a statement to the effect of: "Yes, he made an error, as we all do, but it is business as usual for our most experienced and respected umpire. We back him."
Instead there was silence, then a bizarre social media post that attempted to clarify Stevic's situation, but only made it worse.
Greg Swann, the AFL's footy supremo, put it well on Fox Footy on Wednesday night: "Look, he made a blue".
“He's umpired 12 Grand Finals, he's a star of umpiring. He's made one blue, and I don't think we should hang him for that," Swann said.
Those words came a little too late.
And after a trigger-happy social media guru went way too far.
