Shaken, not erred
YOUNG North Melbourne defender Kyron Hayden was “rattled” after a serious onfield collision last weekend, but says he would do the same thing next time.
Debate swirled around football circles after the 21-yearold ran blindly towards to a contest and was floored by oncoming Richmond forward Tom Lynch and North teammate Ben McKay. Several greats said the decision to run backwards towards the oncoming big men was courageous but silly.
But Hayden, who has watched replays of the incident, said it would have been a “bad look” to pull out and he would do it again.
“I saw them coming out of corner of my eye, but I’d already made my decision to commit. I didn’t pull out because it’s just a bad look, so I stuck with my decision,” he said.
“Thankfully it looked worse than it was. I don’t really have any (concussion) symptoms or anything like that. I’m looking to play this week, hopefully.
“I’d do the same thing again, I’d go. It’s a pretty good hit, it looks pretty nasty, but it looks worse than it was.
“Everyone wants you to go. You build trust when blokes put their body on the line. You want to play with blokes like that. If you pull out, it’s not a good look, you are not helping anyone.
Hayden, who said he was winded in the clash, called his worried parents to let them know he was OK after he was carried off the ground on a stretcher. They told him to be “smarter” next time.
“I was definitely winded. I was a bit rattled, but after a few minutes after I felt fine,” he said. “I was laying on the ground and told the doctor to let me walk off, but with collisions like that the AFL have some protocols and he held down my head and told me not to move so I listened to him.
“I called my mum and dad, they were a little bit concerned, but once I told them I was feeling fine they were happy. They just told me to be a bit smarter next time, but when you have to go, you have to go. I’ll be sweet, don’t worry about me.”