Richmond defender Nick Vlastuin is adamant he touched Jack Sinclair’s kick for goal that drew a lengthy score review in Friday night’s AFL semi-final.

The Tigers were leading St Kilda by 32 points late in the second quarter when Sinclair launched from distance, with Vlastuin running back with the flight in a bid to avoid the Saints cutting the deficit to 26.

The goal umpire ruled Vlastuin had touched the ball on its way through, but called for a score review.

Some still frames showed daylight between Vlastuin’s clenched fist and the ball, while others appeared to show it grazing his hand.

After a lengthy process, the AFL’s reviewer deferred to the goal umpire’s original on-field call, with a behind awarded.

The AFL confirmed the score reviewer had seen insufficient evidence to overturn the original decision, while on Saturday, Vlastuin took umbrage with suggestions he’d claimed to touch the ball without making contact.

“When you know you touched the ball, the goal umpire thinks so too, but someone watching from the stands calls you a cheat, what is that?” Vlastuin tweeted.

Vlastuin also shared tweets that showed the still frames where he appeared to make contact with the ball.

St Kilda coach Brett Ratten dismissed conjecture over the decision post-match, instead focusing on St Kilda’s inaccuracy in front of goal.

“Does it matter (if I thought it was a goal)?” Ratten said of the decision.

“They’re not gonna change it (the decision). Can they replay it and we go out there and finish off the game? They’re not doing that.

“So we can get caught up in all that … but they are not changing the decision.

“We couldn’t kick them from the goal square, let alone get a bit of assistance when we thought we got one – so we had (ourselves) to blame.”