The AFL’s official social media account has sparked widespread fury after a strange post — following Hawthorn’s narrow win over Adelaide — taunted the Crows and their fans.

After the Hawks’ lucky escape on Friday night (the Crows led the game for more than 105 minutes while Hawthorn spent less than nine minutes in front), the AFL’s account posted a mock image of Jack Ginnivan holding a phone and pretending to call “Adelaide”.

The phone used the Crows logo to complete the drama, and the post was brutally captioned: “Hawks are calling to say goodnight.”

The AFL Media team will say they were referencing a viral TikTok trend where people call their boss to say goodnight. And just a few days ago Ginnivan — the cheeky Hawthorn forward — shared vision of himself calling his coach Sam Mitchell and indeed saying goodnight to his bemused boss.

Of course, passionate football fans don’t take well to losing games, and tormenting them in the aftermath — especially when supporters feel their team should have won — is rarely wise.

But the AFL decided to go there, and the backlash was inevitably swift and ferocious.

It was a brave move considering the AFL (based in Victoria with 10 out of 18 teams coming from that state) is regularly accused of “Vic bias” by non-Victorian fans (and, at times, non-Vic clubs).

“This tweet is not a good look coming from a governing body imo. Its unprofessional and only helps consolidate certain narratives among fans about AFL attitudes to non-Victorian AFL clubs,” one fan said.

And another: “Can’t say I’ve ever seen a league wide account take sides and troll an individual team. If it was from HawthornFC, then sure, go right ahead, but really bizarre coming from AFL.”

Australian Olympic volleyball player (and Crows fan) Andrew Schacht also joined the pile on.

“Jesus, are you serious? You are supposed to at least pretend to be unbiased. VFL,” he fumed.

The backlash continued.

“Why is the official, impartial account posting this?” one fan asked on X.

And another: “God the AFL is cringe. Not even hiding their bias and careless at the state of the game.”

And another: “Disgusting post AFL showing your true colours Vic team.”

The rage also spilled over onto Reddit.

“This is bad taste, A team doing it immediately after a match would be poor, but from the official AFL accounts, it is really disappointing (even if they are “separate” they represent the AFL),” one user said.

And another: “Why the f*** do the Crows always cop it from the AFL?”

Other comments also called the post “weird” and “embarrassing”, and many suggested it would be OK from a Hawthorn fan page or a teenager, but not an official account belonging to league HQ.

“This is really weird from competition management. I’d expect it from a 13 year old Hawks fan. Quite embarrassing,” a fan said.

And another: “The AFL posting this is a genuine disgrace. You guys are the AFL not a Hawthorn Fan Page made by a 12 year old kid. Scheduling a night game in Tasmania at this time of the year with two top 4 teams is embarrassing to play in those conditions, sort yourself out.”

And another: “Not sure about this! Not a good look from the ‘governing body’.”

And another: “Seriously the AFL needs some new social media people. Not this work experience trash.”

And another: “AFL Social Media department is a rabble.”

The post comes a week after AFL boss Andrew Dillon drove to the home of Geelong star Bailey Smith to discuss Smith’s own social media behaviour and headline-grabbing indiscretions.

7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary revealed last Sunday that Dillon organised the meeting after Smith made a post that alluded to illicit drug use.

Geelong coach Chris Scott defended Smith, saying: “I think he responded to a troll in the way that modern day players respond to trolls.

“I think it was a joke and it should have been intended that way.”

The problem, of course, is humour is subjective and humans are sensitive.