Collingwood have suffered a brutal blow with Jamie Elliott appearing to suffer a suspected serious knee injury on the same night captain Darcy Moore went down with a hamstring injury in a narrow win over West Coast.
The Pies came away with a 13.14 (92) to 12.10 (82) victory but Scott Pendlebury’s record-breaking game was soured somewhat by the devastating scenes with just four minutes remaining.
Watch the video above: Jamie Elliott goes down with suspected serious knee injury
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
Elliott, 33, flew for a mark but jarred his left knee upon landing, with Pies players remonstrating with West Coast opponents as medical staff tended to their stricken teammate.
“Elliot took the mark, the crowd roared and all of a sudden the shock reverberated around the ground,” Anthony Hudson said in commentary on Fox Sports.
Jason Dunstall added: “Oh, this is a tragedy.”
Elliott, who is signed through to the end of next season, has previously lost two full seasons of his career to various injuries but recovered to play an important role in the 2023 premiership.
He kicked a career-best 60 goals last season.
The fresh disappointment was put to one side at the final siren with Pendlebury interviewed on the MCG and feted by the 90,028-strong crowd.
Earlier, Moore’s night was ended at a boundary throw-in in the second quarter as he curiously spent time in the ruck
Saturday’s clash with the Eagles was just his fourth appearance of the season after missing time with a previous soft-tissue injuries and a concussion.
Moore’s latest injury was described as “another cruel blow” by Kath Loughnan on Fox Sports but David King quickly opened a line of questioning around Moore’s move into the ruck.
“I think it’ll be a story — should he be playing ruck?” he said.
“We haven’t seen him in the ruck — I can’t remember seeing him in the ruck for some time.”
Coaching great Mick Malthouse said he does not like to judge coaching moves “because I know what it’s like in the box” but argued Moore is not the player to be thrown around the ground.
“He is not equipped, coming off hamstrings and soft-tissue injuries, to be running around the ground in a different (ruck) role,” he said on the ABC.
“Because you need to explode to the next one, if it goes out of bounds on the other side you need to get there … he’s a victim of them not thinking through it.”
Collingwood captain Darcy Moore was ruled out of the clash with West Coast at half-time after going down in a ruck contest.
Moore last played a bit-part ruck role in 2017.
“As the great Denis Pagan always used to say, you don’t use a Ferrari to plough a field,” Cam Mooney said.
“Not sure why Darcy was in there so that’s going to be a talking point during the week.”
Dunstall had predicted the potential for injury but talked down the link in the aftermath.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean it happened because he was in the ruck,” he said.
“It’s just unusual for a man that has struggled with injury. It’s a shame. It’s a shame for Darcy Moore.”
Collingwood took a slender 10-point lead over an improving West Coast side into the half-time break.
Record-breaker Scott Pendlebury had just two kicks and seven handballs in the opening two quarters as Nick Daicos led the way with 21 disposals, one goal and a goal assist.
Pendlebury, who stepped up as a leader in Moore’s absence, finished with 20 disposals — but it was again Daicos who shone.
The No.35 kicked the sealer, his third of the night, just moments before Elliott’s injury.
