TAYLA Harris was sent to hospital during Melbourne's 48-point win over the Western Bulldogs on Saturday evening after copping a poke to the eye.
Following a strong start to the game, where Harris was leaping confidently at the footy, she unfortunately hit her right eye in a marking attempt and immediately came from the field.
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"(She's) getting assessed at the moment at the eye hospital, so yeah, she's doing okay but just probably in the best possible hands," Melbourne coach Mick Stinear said after the game.
"I think there was contact involved and I think we needed to send her there to get proper treatment, but she's doing okay … I'm not expecting anything too sinister there, but certainly needed expert attention."
It is a frustrating end to the opening round for Harris, who has battled injury over the last few years. In 2024, she lasted just a half of footy before a shoulder injury required surgery.
Outside of Harris' unfortunate accident, Melbourne looked strong, even with captain Kate Hore being managed through the game as she returned from a knee injury picked up in the club's practice match.
Hore played the first half as a pure forward, before moving into the midfield after the main break.
"It was just a bit annoying, after the practice match against Adelaide, just the bone bruising. Thankfully, it settled at the back end of the week, so she was cleared to play, but then we just, deep forward to midfield, you obviously take a few more knocks," Stinear said.
"We know it's round one, we want her for the full season, so she got through really well, but we just didn't want to push our luck. But obviously rapt that she could play, but just trying to be a bit smarter about the amount of contests she was in today.
"But yeah, we'll look for her to play a lot more midfield time, and then complement that with a bit of forward time next week and beyond."
For Western Bulldogs coach Tam Hyett, it was skill errors that she believes let her side down.
"Fundamentally we probably were poor, probably right across the night, which doesn't help, and then we didn't maximise on our opportunities especially in the first half," Hyett said.
"I thought we had our opportunities, like we had a couple of posters, probably slow entries. We would have liked to have probably gone a little bit faster in the second half with our entries, and we showed that when we did, one-on-one we're quite competitive.
"But we just allowed them to get numbers back and that doesn't help when you're trying to hit the scoreboard."
Former captain Ellie Blackburn played as a forward across the evening, in her first game since week three last year due to a severe foot injury, and gathered 17 disposals while also offering some leadership in the front half.
"I thought she was really good. I thought there were some opportunities there in that first half where she was really clean and gave us a good look forward… she's class and we know that we probably needed a little bit more help forward of the ball," Hyett said.
The Dogs got through the game unscathed, with winger Rylie Wilcox passing tests from a head knock in the last quarter.
