St Kilda coach Ross Lyon says Mason Wood also has a suspected broken collarbone after a distressing fall from a marking contest in Thursday night’s win over Collingwood.
Wood was seen convulsing on the ground after his head and shoulder smashed into the turf following a mid-air collision with teammate Zaine Cordy.
He was awake and sitting up when he was taken to hospital early in the second quarter.
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“Without alarming anyone … he knocked himself out and broken collarbone we think, so that’s not good for him,” Lyon said.
“We’re concerned about him.”
Wood stretchered off after horrible fall | 00:49
Lyon said he hoped dynamic recruit Liam Henry was only dealing with “severe cramp” when he sat out the final 15 minutes with a hamstring complaint.
The Saints boss was impressed by how the his side “went to school” on key areas of their game following the narrow round 1 loss to Geelong, also suggesting teams have gone to work on ways to combat reigning premier Collingwood.
“We didn’t give up last week but our method was a bit off,” he said.
“We buttoned down … really got to work pressing the ball, created a lot of turnovers.
“If you’re the reigning premier, you’ve got clear signatures you need to deal with. It’s maybe taken a while, but we’re seeing all those signature, so it’s pretty clear.
“Often it’s harder to stop, but tonight we did a pretty good job of it.”
0-3! Pies in tatters after Saints defeat | 03:47
Lyon said the “key” to taking down the Pies was limiting their intercept marks and praised his troops for being able to quell that after quarter-time to set up more scoring opportunities.
“It was a step forward, we’ve got plenty of work to do, but confidence comes from action and we delivered the right actions tonight,” he said.
“We were pretty relentless from start to finish.”
The St Kilda coach also highlighted the team’s blend of “exciting” youth and veterans including the “special” Nasiah Wanganeen’Milera, who he said “there’s no more dedicated player on our list.”
“We’ve got some exciting young players – (Marcus) Windhager, (Mitchito) Owens, (Mattaes) Phillipou … Henry was exciting, Ryan Byrnes has improved. Last week we were the fourth-youngest team in the comp and had 10 players under 50 games. That’s the exciting bit,” he said.
“And our leaders are supporting them – (Jack) Steele was fantastic, Wilkie, Seb Ross and his role on (Jordan) De Goey. We just think our youth, we’re on the right path.”
Lyon later added: “We’ve got a few more kids like Lance Collard, (Hugo) Garcia and (Arie) Schoenmaker. The future burns bright for those kids.”
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