Sickening collision rocks AFL as Dogs player knocked out cold

Footy fans were left holding their breath after a Western Bulldogs youngster was knocked out cold in a horrific collision on Saturday.

The Western Bulldogs win over North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night was soured in the final quarter following a horror collision.

With less than seven minutes to play in the contest, the Dogs looked to clear it out of their defensive 50 as Rory Lobb fired off a handball into space.

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Luke Cleary looked to hunt the loose footy down but as he went to scoop the ball up he lost his footing and fell forward.

At the same time as he was heading towards the turf, North’s Jackson Archer was barrelling towards the contest.

In the blink of an eye Cleary’s head slammed into the right knee of Archer which sent him flying over the top of the pack and left the Dogs defender laying face down on the turf.

Watch the sickening collision in the video player above

Cleary slams into Archer's knee and is KO'd. Credit: Fox Footy

An immediate hush fell over the stadium as trainers from both teams rushed out onto the field to be by his side.

Cleary remained down for several minutes as the medicos checked him over before loading him on the stretcher and onto the back of the cart.

Fans watching on couldn’t avert their eyes fast enough as the incident unfolded with Fox Footy electing to not immediately replay the collision before only showing it once.

One fan wrote on X: “Oh my god that was gut wrenching, you never want to see people go down like that.”

A second added: “That is one of the worst collisions I’ve seen.”

As he was being taken from the ground on the medicab, Cleary delivered a thumbs up to the crowd.

He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance as a precaution, according to The Age’s Peter Ryan.

The Dogs defender was out cold. Credit: Fox Footy.

With a depleted bench the Bulldogs held off the Kangaroos open up their 2025 campaign with a hard-fought 16-point win.

The Dogs headed into the game without inspirational captain Marcus Bontempelli (calf), newly-minted all-Australian Adam Treloar (calf), Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Cody Weightman (knee), Liam Jones (hamstring) and Jason Johannisen (hamstring).

The likes of Ed Richards (30 disposals and one goal), Tom Liberatore (28 touches) and new recruit Matthew Kennedy (23) stood tall and filled the void as the Dogs ran out 17.11 (113) to 14.13 (97) winners.

Bailey Dale was also fantastic with 29 possessions and two goals from defence, while Nick Larkey kicked five goals for the Kangaroos as the Bulldogs extended their winning streak against North to eight games.

The Dogs are off and running. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

North Melbourne’s effort and desire couldn’t be questioned, but frustratingly for their long-suffering supporters, they missed a real opportunity to pinch an early win against an undermanned opponent and they finished another game behind their opposition in a familiar scenario which was hoped to be a thing of the past.

The Kangaroos took huge advantages in clearances (27-14), centre clearances (9-3) and contested possessions (74-58) into halftime, but despite all of that, they still trailed the Dogs for inside 50s (23-29) and fell 21 points behind early in the third quarter.

North were their own worst enemies as their poor disposal forward of centre undid all their good work at the coal face and the Bulldogs burnt them on the counter with far superior efficiency in attack.

However, the Roos would not go away as their grit and determination got them back within seven points at three-quarter time. But that proved to be the last big shot they would fire as the Bulldogs made a blistering start to the final term, stretching their lead back out to four goals in the blink of an eye.

- with Ronny Lerner, Newswire

Originally published as Sickening collision rocks AFL as Dogs player knocked out cold