'Can only go by the facts': Goodwin's blunt response after Pie KO's ...

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says star Angus Brayshaw has been left “pretty shattered” amid fears his finals campaign could be over after he was concussed on Thursday night.

The midfielder was knocked out after a collision with Magpie Brayden Maynard who was coming in the opposite direction in the opening term of the qualifying final at the MCG.

Brayshaw, who has a troubling history of head knocks, lay sprawled on the MCG turf for a number of minutes in devastating scenes before being carted off on the stretcher.

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Speaking after his side’s seven-point loss, Goodwin suggested the Collingwood defender should face consequences for the hit.

“I guess that will be sorted out during the week, but we’ve got a pretty shattered player in there … you can only go by the facts,” Goodwin said.

“He jumped off the ground and knocked a guy out (shrugs), so I guess time will tell.

“He’s upset, he’s obviously had a history with concussion a long time ago, so he’s dealing with some emotion there, but he wants to play finals footy – he’s going to be missing for a few weeks and that’s disappointing.”

Brayshaw sat out half of his second season in 2016 and the majority of 2017 as he suffered four concussions over the course of 12 months.

Goodwin remained confident his concussed midfielder had dodged any serious facial injury from the Maynard hit.

“He’s got a bit of a shiner, but outside that he’s alright,” he said.

When asked for his thoughts on the incident, Collingwood coach Craig McRae extended his thoughts to the injured Brayshaw.

“I hope Angus is OK – that’s my first thought is I hope he’s OK,” he said.

“He’s a ripping guy … Hopefully it’s not too bad for him because he’s had multiple concussions.

“Our thoughts go out to him.”

Goodwin said a poor first quarter had let the Demons down more than their terrible conversion, managing only seven goals from 69 inside 50s to Collingwood’s 37.

“There‘s a lot of optimism, we played the right way for a big part of that game … to dominate territory, to dominate inside 50, to win the (contested possessions) by 15 by the end of the game, that’s a pretty big turnaround in the game of footy, and that gives us a lot of heart, because that is what stands up in finals footy,” he said.

“But you’ve got to do it for the whole time, and in the first quarter we weren’t able to do that.”

Goodwin said Brayshaw’s withdrawal from the game in the first quarter had left Melbourne unable to deploy Christian Petracca forward as much as planned, contributing to the poor offensive performance.

“There’s all the domino effect using your sub early, shuffling Christian back up into the midfield on the back of that incident,” he explained.

The coach said he had not seen much of the incident involving Jacob van Rooyen, who appeared to collect Dan McStay in the chin with a bump during the first term.

He said van Rooyen was unlikely to be in trouble with the MRO because McStay remained on the ground, although the key forward in fact spent 20 minutes on the bench as he received a concussion test.

-With NCA Newswire