MELBOURNE coach Steven King has been unable to provide an update on hospitalised key forward Brody Mihocek in his post-match press conference.
Mihocek’s neck and head collided at an awkward angle with the MCG turf during a Billy Frampton tackle in the second quarter of the eight-point win over Collingwood, and play was stopped for 10 minutes as medicos loaded the 33-year-old onto a motorised stretcher.
He was able to move his arms and legs during that period, but King did not have any more information to add, nor was able to specify whether it was Mihocek’s head, neck or upper back that was of most concern.
“Not yet. Obviously all our thoughts are with him at the moment.
“He’s gone off to the hospital in the ambulance to get scans, and we’re waiting to see what happens there, but fingers and toes are crossed for him,” King said.
“We’re obviously concerned. It didn’t look great, when you see a player go down, and it’s issues around the head and neck, that’s serious.
“We’re thinking of him now and hopefully it goes okay for him, but it’s a concern.
“We’re waiting to hear back from the scans. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow – he’s obviously in good care now, so just waiting for those tests and results when they come through.”
Mihocek had an eight-year career at the Magpies, leading the club’s goalkicking on five occasions before crossing to the Demons over the off-season.
Frampton was particularly shaken after the tackle, staying with his former teammate until enough help arrived, and both teams headed over to the stretcher to pay their respects.
“The ‘Checkers’ one – you saw our response on the field. We love him. There are parts of us that would love him to still be in our building, and he’s at a different club now, but we don’t lose our love for him,” Collingwood coach Craig McRae said.
“Hopefully he’s all right, and Polly and the family are supported well. I saw Will Hoskin-Elliot while I was walking in at half-time, and he said he’s okay, so hopefully it’s not too bad.
“They’re former teammates and premiership players together, so I’m watching it from afar on the screen and it looks ungainly. I’m sure the Tribunal will have its own look at it and make the decision around it, but Billy – it was good how he responded after one of his mates went down, his second half was really good for us. Fingers crossed for Brody.”
Collingwood has its own injury concern, with veteran defender Brayden Maynard twice dislocating his shoulder.
The Pie was ruled out of the game after the second incident, occurring just before Mihocek’s injury in a busy second quarter.
“Obviously he’s an incredibly brave player. He came back on the ground and his shoulder pops out again, but even when he came back on the ground, he was playing tough,” McRae said.
“That’s going to take its own course. A couple of those examples we’ve given four weeks off to strengthen up, young (Will) Hayes is doing that at the moment. This might be a bit more extreme, we’ll just wait and see.”
King was pleased with the way the Demons toughed out the close victory, to which both teams had strong claims, but forecasted several changes ahead of a five-day break, with skipper Max Gawn carrying a sore left shoulder.
Melbourne has not yet had a bye, aside from the extra week granted for those who didn’t play in opening round.
“It was fantastic. It was finals-like atmosphere, finals-like occasion, finals-like contest.
“For us to find another way – it certainly wasn’t the prettiest game of footy – but I thought when the game was on the line we were able to go to another level.
“They’re a bloody good team, a good club and they’ve got a lot of experience in those moments. To see our boys keep chipping away and own moments late in the game was really encouraging,” King said.
“[Gawn] was a bit grumbly from last week from the cricket pitch up in Alice (Springs). He got dumped on there, but he was okay. He’s a trooper and a warhorse, and as a 34-year-old ruckman the joints are a bit sore, but he manfully boxed on and was big for us yet.
“It’s a consideration (resting), we’re aware of it. We’ll see how the boys came out of it. Our VFL group that played had a seven-day break, so I think we have to be smart and strategic with how we manage our group. But once we gather all the information from our high-performance group and medical team, we’ll be more educated around what decisions we have to make.
