‘He put it back in for me’: Star’s light-hearted take on Blues’ injury crisis in gutsy win over Saints

Blues coach Michael Voss.Credit: Getty Images

Blues coach Michael Voss can’t recall a game where his side had to fight so desperately for a win and that made tonight’s victory over St Kilda even sweeter than usual.

“I can’t remember the last game where we had to fight it out so hard,” Voss said post-game.

“It was just a game of persistence. At times, it was stuck in that arm wrestle. We had to navigate a couple of things. and we have back-to-back six-day schedules, so that will be three games in very short time.

“We had injuries to get through, and we had to take the speed out of the game just to get our players through – we were very happy with the stoppages in the game in the third quarter so we could get our time to rest.

“We gave very few windows for our opponents to go through.”

Voss was asked if his side was trying to make the game more contested.

“We weren’t the ones filling it up at stoppages,” Voss said.

“We were happy for the game to go dead for a little while and that’s just the way that it played out.”

Voss said Mitch McGovern (who was taken to hospital after a heavy knock to his chest in a collision) would await scan results, while Blake Acres would need scans on his shoulder, and Lachie Cowan had a hamstring issue which would need to be assessed. Nick Haynes copped a boot to the neck but was able to return to the field after the main break.

Thanks so much for joining us for a cracking evening of footy.

We will have more AFL coverage overnight and we will be back with another AFL live blog from 1.30pm AEST on Saturday, so please join us then.

Bye for now.

Blues coach Michael Voss.Credit: Getty Images

Blues coach Michael Voss can’t recall a game where his side had to fight so desperately for a win and that made tonight’s victory over St Kilda even sweeter than usual.

“I can’t remember the last game where we had to fight it out so hard,” Voss said post-game.

“It was just a game of persistence. At times, it was stuck in that arm wrestle. We had to navigate a couple of things. and we have back-to-back six-day schedules, so that will be three games in very short time.

“We had injuries to get through, and we had to take the speed out of the game just to get our players through – we were very happy with the stoppages in the game in the third quarter so we could get our time to rest.

“We gave very few windows for our opponents to go through.”

Voss was asked if his side was trying to make the game more contested.

“We weren’t the ones filling it up at stoppages,” Voss said.

“We were happy for the game to go dead for a little while and that’s just the way that it played out.”

Voss said Mitch McGovern (who was taken to hospital after a heavy knock to his chest in a collision) would await scan results, while Blake Acres would need scans on his shoulder, and Lachie Cowan had a hamstring issue which would need to be assessed. Nick Haynes copped a boot to the neck but was able to return to the field after the main break.

Saints coach Ross Lyon.Credit: Getty Images

Saints coach Ross Lyon gave a trademark long answer to the first question of his press conference.

How do you view the last portion of the match where you weren’t able to finish the job?
You are right. We couldn’t quite gain ascendancy. Yeah, I thought they were on top around clearances early. We started OK. It was just a few different things throughout the game. Ultimately, they overtake opportunities more easy than we were.

Did we overplay, not going off where we shifted the ball? I feel like we did. That is probably how players feel. We played a pretty good front-half game... we turned it over in the first or second when we were coming out, but we got rid of that. They just overscore a little bit out of deep mid. We are not confused. We want to have a good look at it. I will probably be conservative until I look at it.

I thought our spirit – [it] was obviously a special night and a challenging night. We really want to show this theme we hold for Spud and acknowledge the work that’s been put into that space by the whole AFL community, particularly Spud and the Danny Frawley Centre. Not withstanding that, we have to be able to focus on the AFL game. I thought we can only show the esteem we hold him in and what he meant to the club by playing in a pretty good spirit. I thought we never gave up. They got some real capability.

There’s some good lessons for [Darcy] Wilson, [Hugo] Garcia and [Hugh] Boxshall that we need to learn and learn pretty quick because we... I think they deserved the win.

I need to go away and have a good look at it. I thought for the night we played with spirit, [but] we weren’t slick. We probably overplayed a little bit. They’re the number one intercept team, I think they had 11 halfway through the second. [They] maybe finished with six more for the game. We tidied that up, maybe at a cost. They were probably scoring a bit more.

Jack Higgins of the Saints.Credit: Getty Images

Saints coach Ross Lyon hopes star forward Jack Higgins will be fit to travel to Perth next round after he was subbed off due to illness tonight.

“He had a tough week, he had a scan on his calf, didn’t train, and almost didn’t play,” Lyon told media post-game.

“Then he thought he was alright, and then he was really quite unwell.

“We will put our arms around him and hope to get him up to go to Perth.”

Blue Blake Acres nurses a sore shoulder.Credit: AFL Photos

Carlton star Blake Acres doesn’t know if his shoulder injury will keep him out of games, but he was able to stay on the field for the injury-hit Blues tonight.

Acres had his right shoulder pop out and go back in plus, had Jimmy Webster try and bump his should as he favoured it.

“It came out for a bit and then a good mate of mine, Jimmy Webster, thought he would put it back in for me. He gave me a nice hit and that popped it back in,” Acres said with a laugh.

“It was a pretty frantic moment as I was down the race and I saw Lachie Cowen getting treatment and [Mitch] McGovern getting in the ambulance – it was crazy at that time.

“If you scanned my shoulders before the game, it would have shown you they were pretty banged up already after 10-plus years playing footy.

“I strapped it up and got back out there.

“I don’t like missing games of footy, so we will see how it goes. I had to play with this one [motions to left shoulder] a couple of years ago, we will see how the shoulder pulls up in the morning.”

Harry McKay had a telling night during “Spud’s Game”.Credit: AFL Photos

That’s a massive result for Carlton, who jumped out by 24 points midway through the second term but had to desperately cling on as injuries and a persistent St Kilda conspired against them.

That Harry McKay – who took a break from the game this season to focus on his mental health – kicked the sealing goal for a 15-point win was fitting in “Spud’s Game”, an occasion dedicated to shining light on mental health. That was McKay’s third and biggest goal of the night, but he had a lot of big moments, including at other times in the final quarter.

After losing their first four matches of the season, the Blues have rebounded to claim four of their next five games to provisionally sit in ninth spot. The Saints, who slipped to a 4-5 record, are down to 11th place and continue to be mired in mediocrity despite some strong one-off performances in 2025.

Max Hall’s miss on the run, which could have dragged St Kilda back within three points, was costly in the end.

Patrick Cripps came up big in the final term to finish with 26 disposals and match-highs of 15 contested possessions and eight clearances. Defenders Jack Silvagni (10) and Nick Haynes (nine) amassed 19 intercept possessions between them, while Tom De Koning shaded Rowan Marshall in a competitive ruck battle. Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (30) was prolific for the Saints.

Harry McKay celebrates a goal with Charlie Curnow and Will White.Credit: AFL Photos

Blues star Harry McKay spoke to Fox Footy post game.

On the win:
We know they defend well as a team, they are very dour and don’t give you very much. We knew it was going to be an arm-wrestle and it was a good finish.

On his goal to seal the win:
I was trying to take as much time as I could. Those are the best moments to play footy in, it’s like playing footy when you were a kid, and we practice those [late game] scenarios a lot and we did very well.

On playing in the big occasion at the MCG:
It’s a real privilege to be playing in Friday night footy in “Spud’s Game”. He was an inspirational person, we are really privileged to be in this time slot with St Kilda, and they did this game really well.

On the importance of mental health awareness:
It’s really important, as everyone said tonight. Your health and wellbeing is really important, and the more we can talk about it, the better.

Harry McKay of the Blues kicks a goal.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

Harry McKay kicked the vital late goal while the Blues were too solid tactically and too good in the contests as they held off St Kilda to notch another vital win in their quest to climb back into finals contention.

The big question for the Blues will be how damaging the injury report will be with Mitch McGovern (chest) taken to hospital for x-rays and Lachie Cowan (hamstring) benched for the second half while Nick Haynes (head knock) and Blake Acres (shoulder) played on despite leaving the ground with injuries in the first half.

More to come.

It had to be Harry.

Big Harry McKay marked a chip kick from White and took his time to line up his shot from the right boundary line.

His kick was always going to go in – he loves that angle. He pumped his fist and the crowd roared.

Fair play to the Blues.