AFL admits Crows were robbed by umpire as Adelaide stews on one-point loss

The AFL has admitted Adelaide's Izak Rankine should have been paid a mark in the dying minutes of Saturday's game and, even if it wasn't worthy of being called a mark, he should have received a free kick.

Gold Coast defeated the Crows by one point, 13.13 (91) to 14.6 (90), but the hosts were the beneficiaries of a late umpiring controversy at People First Stadium.

Rankine was not awarded a mark despite appearing to get a decent hold of the ball, nor a free kick despite being pushed in the back by Sam Collins.

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There's every chance Rankine would have maintained control of the footy if Collins hadn't thumped into him while the Crows half-forward was off the ground.

The Crows were trailing by one point and Rankine would have had a set shot from about 25 metres out in the left-forward pocket if luck had fallen his way.

9News Melbourne's Tom Morris reported on Sunday that the AFL conceded the umpire was wrong on both counts.

It marked the fourth time in less than two years that the AFL had conceded an umpiring fault had hurt the Crows in a tight game.

Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks was critical of the umpiring incident in his post-match press conference.

"Clearly, we weren't at our best today, but I thought we did really well to hang in," Nicks said.

"You get to the end of the game, and we've given ourselves a chance, and you need every bit of luck in that moment. But that last minute and a half, we clearly didn't get things going our way.

"I'd say there's some really frustrated fans of ours out there, and I feel for them and I'm a little bit with them.

"My version of it is, if he didn't mark it, he's tackled in a marking contest."

Suns coach Damien Hardwick dismissed a question about the incident with a laugh.

"We're not going to go through every free kick, are we?" Hardwick said.

North Melbourne great David King sided with Gold Coast.

"The Crows will consider themselves a little bit unlucky … but they survived the test, the Suns," he said on the Fox Footy coverage.

"That's a mark and/or a free kick. You can't tackle a guy while he's marking the ball. You can't drive into the middle of his back.

"The umpire froze. Let's be honest; he didn't want to pay the decision.

"It's a mark or a free kick, there's no doubt about that."