No-one likes seeing a player knocked out on a football field and all those at the MCG felt sickened by the collision that knocked out Collingwood youngster Tarkyn Lockyer. Lockyer was accidentally crunched by teammate Jarrod Molloy during the match against Essendon and play was held up for some time while medical staff assessed Lockyer's condition and removed him from the ground. Essendon vice-captain Mark Mercuri was in the thick of the action when Lockyer got cleaned up and he recalls the incident for Engine Room members.

""I remember contesting the ball at ground level and there was a collision, the ball was cleared and I just felt this dead weight on top of me,"" Mercuri said. ""I got up and knew he was in trouble. He was struggling to breath so I just checked him and called to the Collingwood bench. I didn't want to touch him in case something serious was wrong.""

It was a fantastic act of sportsmanship from Mercuri who was happy to temporarily forget where the football was. ""You never like seeing a bloke hurt like that - it makes you feel a bit sick to see it,"" he said. ""He was in a pretty bad way and it is only a game of football after all.""

In fact, Mercuri was very lucky that it wasn't him being carried from the ground. Molloy was all ready to hip and shoulder Mercuri who was being tackled by Lockyer at the time. Mercuri fell out of Molloy's path which left Lockyer a sitting shot. ""I didn't see him coming so I didn't duck late or anything like that. I just happened to get out of the way at the right time - I was pretty lucky in hindsight,"" Mercuri said.

Mercuri played a fantastic game for the bombers on the weekend, silencing the critics of recent weeks. Mercuri collected 24 possessions in what some thought was a best-on-ground display. ""It was good to get a bit of the footy - hopefully it is a sign of things to come over the next few weeks,"" Mercuri said.