AFL live updates: Concerns for Saint Mason Wood after heavy clash delays game

So, how do we see this one playing out, team?

Will the Magpies finally get their first win of the season or will the Saints make them go 0-3?

Play resumed after a loud applause for Mason Wood, who was taken off the ground on the medicart.

Minutes later Max King kicked the Saints’ second goal of the evening.

He earned a free kick after a jumper pull in a pack contest and slotted it straight through to give the Saints a spark. It cuts the margin back down to a goal.

Collingwood lead by 6.

The stretcher has been brought out for Mason Wood, who is being looked at by physios on the ground.

He was racing back with the flight of the ball to try and have an impact on the contest but fell awkwardly on his head.

Play has been stopped, while the trainers are now calling for the cart to be brought out.

Both medical staff from Collingwood and St Kilda are out to offer assistance.

Reef McInnes has kicked Collingwood’s third goal of the evening to give the Magpies a two-goal early lead.

He might not have been the intended target for the ball, with it going over the contest, but he was set up well to take advantage and put his name on the scoreboard.

Between the arcs, the Pies are playing a lot more measured than we’ve seen so far this season.

Collingwood lead by 13.

Interesting Billy Frampton not Darcy Moore has taken Max King to presumably play a more lock down role while Moore can be aggressive with intercepts.

The first Saints goal spoke to Collingwood concern over their defence.

Rohan Marshall with a free kick moved the ball in quickly, capitalising on the 6-6-6 zone the players had not broken from. He just kicked long to a pack but Collingwood saturated numbers at it and put the big fist through the spoil.

Unfortunately for them, it went goal side where Jack Higgins had cleverly sat off the back unmanned.

There goes Collingwood’s early lead.

St Kilda have responded and it came off the boot of Jack Higgins.

Alright, a goal a piece in the opening four minutes of the night.

Collingwood forward star Jamie Elliot has light up the MCG with the opening goal of the night.

Just 90 seconds into the game – and it came from a St Kilda turn over.

Nick Daicos was instrumental in the play, moving the ball at lightening pace. It’ll be a worry for the Saints if he’s in for a good game.

Collingwood lead by 6.

The Saints and Pies are underway at the MCG.

Beforehand, Hamish McLachlan gave an emotional speech to put mental health on the big speech. Representatives of all 18 teams and the playing groups gathered in arms around the centre circle.

Pete Murray played Better Days.

“Right now isn’t about football, it’s about mental health,” said Hamish McLachlan

“Two in five os us with experience mental health illness at some point. That’s too many.”

Outside the ground, there are still thousands of people waiting to get in.

This from our senior AFL reporter Michael Gleeson:

Pete Murray brilliant. Nailed it. Understated. Right song well sung.

Offt, the anticipation is brewing.

The teams are out on the pitch and doing their final warm ups before go time.

The Saints led by Jack Steele and the Magpies by Darcy Moore.

It’s an important game, with mental health taking the big stage, but also one for each side’s 2024 campaigns.

How do we see this game playing out? Let us know in the poll pinned to the top of the blog.

Some reading for you while we wait for the teams to run out. This one, thanks to chief sports columnist Greg Baum.

Last week was not the first time the Swans have spoiled a Collingwood flag unfurling. In 1958, the Magpies won a famous premiership, but in round one the next year, South Melbourne beat them at Victoria Park and captain-coach Ron Clegg was so excited he ordered 20-year-old Bob Skilton to pull down the newly raised pennant. And he did.

At 0-2, Collingwood’s latest flag again hangs limply at half-mast. It means everyone is on their case. Is it hubris or happenstance? Is it chronic or curable? Is it a hangover?

It’s true that as the last team to finish last year and one of the first to start this early-starting year, the Magpies had a short, hectic off-season. The sheer volume of demands on the club would have been both distracting and exhausting. The church-state divide between the footy and marketing departments would have been blurrier than usual.

No one begrudged influential footy manager Graham Wright his sabbatical, but it will have stretched resources. There’s always more to any footy job than meets the eye. This week, another mid-level footy department executive, Clare Pettyfor, left.

On season’s eve, the Magpies released a film about their 2023 premiership, complete with gala launch. Last week, some players took a short timeout from their pre-match prep for the Swans to watch the elaborate flag unfurling.

Both these developments sat poorly with Leigh Matthews, who said it was one thing for fans to bask, another for players.

Read the full piece here.

The pipes of Temper Trap’s lead singer Dougy Mandagi are getting to work entertaining the crowd that’s filtering into the MCG for Spud’s game.

There’s a good atmosphere brewing, with a lot of white and black and patches of red weaved in. There’s already an emotional feeling in the air.

Not long until the teams run out.