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NORTH Melbourne star Shaun Higgins endured an “eventful day” on Sunday. After his daughter was born at 5am, the Kangaroo was in hospital himself after being knocked out against Hawthorn.

NORTH Melbourne star midfielder Shaun Higgins has been taken to hospital for concussion after becoming a new father only hours earlier.

Kangaroos’ coach Brad Scott said Higgins was recovering well and remembered his wife giving birth to their daughter Rosie about 5am. But his day took another dramatic turn when the best and fairest winner clashed heads with Hawk Ryan Burton running through half forward early in the third term. REPORT: WHAT SPOON? NORTH PROVING DOUBTERS WRONG RE—CAP ALL THE ACTION IN THE BLOG BELOW REPORT: RAYNER MISS HANDS SUNS QCLASH THRILLER In almost the same passage of play North Melbourne lost another player, Ed Vickers-Willis to a head knock in the Kangaroos’ 28-point win over Hawthorn. Scott said the first half was one of the best performances in his eight-year tenure and was happy Higgins was feeling better. “He was coherent in the rooms and he remembered that his wife gave birth this morning so that was a good result,” Scott said. “He has had an eventful day. “He is at the Epworth and is under observation at the moment and the early signs are promising but we won’t know for sure until they have done all the tests.” Scott said Higgins hadn’t slept much the night before the game, but was happy the birth took place before the game so he could play, before he was knocked out. “Clearly he had made the decision that he wanted to be at the birth so if that coincided with the game he would be at the birth,” Scott said. “But he went off the track on Saturday morning and had the news that his wife had gone to hospital and he was with her all the way through, so he had minimal sleep.” Scott was thrilled with the victory. “I think it’s as good a footy as we have played in a very long time, probably in my time,” he said. “Because it wasn’t just one facet of the game, it was all of them and clearly we were able to create a lot of scoring shots and kept a very good team to three scoring shots (at half time).” Cameron Zurhaar was reported for bumping David Mirra into the fence, but Scott said the contact between the players was made in the field of play. “Clearly players have a duty of care to each other, but the AFL has a duty of care with where fences are placed,” he said. “if that incident had happened over the boundary line then there would be a serious issue but from my angle it looked like it happened inside the boundary line.” Scott said bigger challenges lay ahead for the Roos but was pleased with the effort considering the youth of the side. LIVE stream the 2018 Toyota AFL Premiership on FOX SPORTS. Every match of every round LIVE in HD, with no ad-breaks siren-to-siren! Get your 2-week free trial now.

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