‘I’ve never seen it’: West Coast pay price for rare AFL blunder

West Coast have committed the ultimate AFL sin, by sending too many players out onto the field in a blunder that cost them at Adelaide Oval.

The Eagles had three players come to the interchange gate, and had three players waiting to go on at a stoppage midway through the first term on Saturday.

Debutant Luke Strnadica, Xavier O’Neill and Luke Foley all came onto the field as players including Jake Waterman and Shannon Hurn exited.

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But a step behind, Connor West then rushed out towards the contest.

The emergency umpire then stepped in to address the glaring error.

“He’s paid it with the tracksuit pants on… I’ve never seen it!” Fox Footy’s Mark Ricciuto said.

The moment too many Eagles players went onto the ground.Source: FOX SPORTS

Commentator Gary Lyon said it wasn’t often clubs failed to count the correct number of players.

“Gone are the days where you get your score wiped. although at that stage I don’t think there was a score on the board anyway,” he said.

“They got away with one there.”

Jason Dunstall said he hadn’t seen an emergency umpire intervene for an interchange infringement.

“They often run out and make reports, but I’ve never seen this,” he said.

“Been a while since we’ve had an interchange infringement.”

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Ricciuto said he wasn’t sure who was to blame – West who ran out onto the ground, or forward Willie Rioli who then arrived at the interchange gate a minute after the ground made their way onto the field.

“We saw the free kick get paid to Port Adelaide with three West Coast Eagles players coming off the ground,” he said.

“As they come on, one, two and three come on and one, two, three, four go onto the oval.”

The moment summed up a tough first term for Rioli, who failed to gather a single touch at Adelaide Oval in the opener.