A furious Terry Wallace will ask the AFL to 'please explain' why 14 seconds were lost from the time clock in the dying stages of Richmond's narrow three-point loss to St Kilda on Saturday night.
With about one minute remaining and the Tigers down by four points, defender Kelvin Moore took a strong pack mark 35m out but his kick hit the post.
The resultant kick-in was then called back and had to be retaken, but the clock failed to stop during that time.
When play resumed, Richmond won the ball back where Jack Riewoldt took a mark just outside 50. But his shot, as the final siren blew, dropped short as St Kilda held on to win 17.8 (110) to 16.11 (107).
"We have no doubt that after the Kel Moore shot on goal, and the resultant kickout, the clock continued to run down," Wallace said.
"It was sitting right in front of me in the box, it continued to run down, it didn't get reset, whether it was 14 (seconds or) 17, it was over 10 seconds of lost play."
"We'd love to have that 10 seconds to be able to make the right decisions at the end of the game."
This latest controversy comes just a week after a similar incident saw nine seconds go missing in the Dockers' one-point loss to Geelong at Subiaco. And it also comes just days after the AFL fined Sydney $50,000 for having an extra man on the field against North Melbourne.
Wallace said the AFL needed to act immediately to rectify what is becoming a blight on the game.
"From the point of view of the game and the structure, we'll wear the loss, we had opportunities to win the game, I've got no issue with that," he said.
"But we are playing a super-professional sport here, we cannot be making mistakes like that."
"Can we have a fining system? Can we go to the AFL and fine them if they want to fine us?"
"We've probably had someone step over the line or do the wrong thing on the interchange today and we'll get slapped with a please explain why."
"Well, who explains to us?"
Despite the result, Wallace was pleased with his side's application having drawn with the Western Bulldogs a fortnight ago and pushed Hawthorn to within two goals last week.
"I think they're growing and understanding about where their footy's at and how they're going," he said. "I think from a resolve point of view, they're growing as a group together."
Wallace also praised the performance of veteran Matthew Richardson, who again put on a brilliant display with 22 disposals, five goals and 13 marks.
"He's going pretty well isn't he? He's playing fantastic footy," Wallace said. "But he's a very, very frustrated man at the moment because he's trying to will us over the line and unfortunately others just haven't been able to come along for the ride."