Mason Wood handed devastating news as AFL world rallies around St Kilda player

St Kilda utility Mason Wood has paid the price for his courage, suffering a broken collarbone and a concussion in the Saints' upset win over Collingwood on Thursday night. The incident occurred as the Pies looked to capitalise on some early momentum in the first quarter.

A kick from Josh Daicos on the wing was pinged in the direction of Darcy Cameron. As the Pies ruckman leapt off the ground to take the mark, Wood and St Kilda teammate Zaine Cordy clattered into one another as they tried to spoil it. After slamming into Cordy, Wood toppled to the ground horizontally, crashing hard into the MCG turf.

Play was stopped for several minutes as medical personnel attended to Wood as he lay still on the ground. He was eventually taken off on a stretcher and rushed to hospital.

After the game, St Kilda coach Ross Lyon admitted that he feared Wood would be out for some time. "He's such a good lad. It was pretty courageous," coach Ross Lyon said. "He knocked himself out and broke a collarbone. We're concerned about him."

It is the second time Wood has suffered a serious concussion injury, having been knocked out challenging for a mark as a North Melbourne player in 2016. Following news of his injury AFL fans flocked to social media to wish the utility all the best with his recovery.

Ross Lyon says St Kilda side learnt their lessons from Geelong defeat

Lyon said the Saints were able to take positives out of last week's narrow defeat to Geelong and put together a complete performance to topple the Pies. "It was a step forward. We have plenty of work to do, but confidence comes from action and we delivered the right actions," he said. "We were pretty relentless from start to finish."

St Kilda's win over Collingwood means the defending premiers have slumped to 0-3 in 2024. Lyon believes the blueprint for how to beat the Magpies is clear and says teams are finally catching on. "If you're the reigning premier, you have clear signatures that the opposition needs to deal with," he said. "The competition has maybe taken a while, but we're seeing all those signatures. It's pretty clear - often it's hard to stop, but we did a pretty good job of that."

Craig McRae says Collingwood only have themselves to blame

Much was made following the game of the Pies not receiving any favours from the umpires in their 15-point loss to the Saints. Collingwood finished the game down 30-15 on the free kick count but McRae says many of them were justified and his side simply weren't good enough.

"That's a big number, isn't it, and the crowd felt that. We love them for that," he said. "But some of that stuff is real. We're tackling too high ... again, that's fundamentals. You can see fundamental skills that are just sloppy, rusty, clunky.

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"There are a lot of fundamental errors that we're making, from experienced players, that you wouldn't expect. We have some of our best players, and some of the most decorated players you've seen in the game, are somewhat ... we're all in this. It's time to get busy, isn't it."

with AAP

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