AT 7.17pm on Friday there will be an inevitable watch on the Crows line-up as Don Pyke and his team stands — and stares down the Geelong squad — as the national anthem is played before the AFL preliminary final at Adelaide Oval.

It is wrong. Very wrong.

In fairness to Pyke — and Adelaide captain Taylor Walker — there can be no suggestion their mind games with the opposition were crafted to be disrespectful to the national anthem. It is the unfortunate byproduct of an AFL oversight.

Those two minutes with Advance Australian Fair should be about Australia, the game and the national anthem. Not even the All Blacks contemplate their famed haka until the national anthems — of both New Zealand and its rugby opponent — are played and honoured.

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Unlike other sports — that have teams stand on opposite match officials and shake hands as they line-up before the national anthem — the AFL came up with its flawed concept of having its finalists stand eye-to-eye — 30 metres apart along a centre wing — three decades ago.

There was the “good look” in the Collingwood-Essendon duels on Anzac Day as the Magpies and Bombers stood around raising of the Australian flag during the reading of the ode, the playing of the bugle and the minute’s silence. The teams fall away from the frame amid a symbol of patriotism.

By contrast, the Australian national anthem is played before AFL finals — to be quite blunt — as a routine. Unlike Anzac Day at the MCG, there is no focus on the flag — and at some AFL venues the players are lined up looking away from the flag (another terrible mistake).

It is all wrong.

The Crows have come up with their perfect answer to the long-running debate as to whether teams should lock arms while standing side-by side or have each player stand alone during the line-up during the national anthem.

For Pyke and each Crows player to stand in the same way — feet apart, arms firmly to the side and eyes locked on an opponent across the open space — is clearly a premeditated concept that highlights just how far Adelaide is going to find an edge.

And for all the denials, and suggestions the “Crows stare” was built on a spontaneous thought by Walker, Adelaide has clearly turned this moment into a mind game.

But it is the wrong time and wrong place for such.

The national anthem needs to have the focus on Advance Australia Fair — and the flag. And it falls on the AFL to change this. Both teams should line up along the centre square, on either side of the umpires, and have the Australian flag in their sight.

Some might even wish to have the players sing the national anthem.

And, of course, the Adelaide Football Club, Pyke and Walker would not object if there is nothing to their “Crows stare”. After all, the national anthem should not be a moment of gamesmanship.

michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au