told The Age<\/a>: \u201cIt didn\u2019t look good but when we all went over to wish him well he looked at me and smiled, he was in good spirits.<\/p>\n\u201cHe was moving his arms and legs I reckon just to make sure everything was OK, but he had a smile on his face when I looked at him on the way past which made me feel better.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the first time playing against him and every time we ran past each other on the field we were bumping each other so we were having a bit of fun out there, but that happens which is quite sad, so we really wish him the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dual All-Australian Leigh Montagna said there was an \u201ceerie silence\u201d at the venue after the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game continues to try and do as much as they can to protect players, from rules changes and those sorts of things. But sometimes in this game, accidents can happen that are pretty dangerous,\u201d Montagna told Fox Footy.<\/p>\n
Mihocek was in concussion protocols earlier this year and missed games in August 2020 when he was with Collingwood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis does have an emotional toll on the group. It\u2019s almost like family once you get to this stage at AFL level because you spend so much time together,\u201d David King said.<\/p>\n
Montagna added: \u201cThis would be a unique one because there\u2019d be a lot of Collingwood players that probably are as tight or have more of a relationship with Brody Mihocek for the time they\u2019ve played together. This would affect both sets of playing groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Mihocek was loaded onto the stretcher, both Melbourne and Collingwood players went to Mihocek as a show of support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a magnificent, beautiful scene going over to see their premiership teammate,\u201d Fox Footy\u2019s Mark Howard said as Magpies players went to Mihocek. \u201cThat\u2019s a touching moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crowd stand as Brody Mihocek of the Demons leaves the ground during the 2026 AFL Round 13 match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Melbourne Demons at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on June 8, 2026 (Photo by James Wiltshire via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Montagna added: \u201cThey\u2019ve always shown class this Collingwood team under Craig McRae.\u201d<\/p>\n
Courageously though, the Demons went on to win the King\u2019s Birthday thriller by eight points despite Mihocek\u2019s absence to win their seventh-straight match at the MCG this season.<\/p>\n
Melbourne captain Max Gawn remained uncertain on the latest regarding his veteran teammate post-match when speaking to Fox Footy, and revealed he locked eyes with Mihocek\u2019s father amid the break in play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just eye-balling his Dad for a while there (during treatment), I\u2019m keen to know how he is,\u201d Gawn said in the changerooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen our medicos our time with that, you know it\u2019s pretty serious. My heart goes out to Brody and his family, and hopefully it\u2019s the best result.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An unnerving hush descended across the MCG on Monday as premiership Pie turned Melbourne recruit Brody Mihocek was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,350468,3423,10133,8001,10143,3496,258225,19096,7804,35344,350465,264293,85,350467,350466],"class_list":["post-723697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-awkward-tackle","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-concussion-protocols","tag-craig-mcrae","tag-dual-premiership","tag-emotional-toll","tag-mark-howard","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-premiership-teammate","tag-real-strife","tag-real-trouble","tag-sports","tag-time-calling","tag-unnerving-hush"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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