Sam Flanders was helped off Marvel Stadium in the second quarter with an Achilles injury as St Kilda’s night against Hawthorn unravelled in Round 12. The St Kilda recruit, billed as a $4.5 million signing, left the field while the game was already tilting heavily toward Hawthorn at 7:30pm AEST.
Will Day, meanwhile, made his long-awaited AFL return after a 300-day absence, giving Hawthorn an extra lift in a first half that St Kilda will want to forget. By halftime, the Saints were trailing 8.7 to 0.5, their lowest-scoring first half since 1957.
The injury mattered because it came to one of St Kilda’s biggest offseason investments in the middle of a match that had already turned into a one-sided contest. Flanders had been brought in as a major addition, but his exit added another problem to a side that had barely found a way forward all night.
The broader picture was harsh for St Kilda. They were held to five points in the opening half, a return that matched the scale of Hawthorn’s control and underlined how little the Saints could generate at Marvel Stadium. FOX Footy carried the match on channel 504, with streaming available on Kayo from 6:30pm AEST ahead of the opening bounce.
What happens next is the concern St Kilda cannot avoid: any Achilles issue for Flanders would be a blow to a player expected to play a major role, and the extent of the damage now shapes more than one result. For a team already staring at a historically poor first half, the sight of another key figure leaving on crutches was the kind of moment that can change the tone of a season.
