Melbourne coachSimon Goodwin has blasted his team after another tight loss to Carlton, but it was an incident involving Steven May that was the main talking point.
The Demons lost yet another tight one against the Blues, losing by 8 points, their fourth loss in a row with a margin of eight points or less.
The main talking point came in the third quarter when Steven May knocked out Blues forward Frankie Evans in an incident that involved a bump-like motion from May after Evans gathered the ball.
Evans was knocked out in the incident and was bleeding from the nose, and he was eventually subbed out due to a concussion.
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Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin spoke in his press conference after the match, explaining that May didn’t intend to injure the Blue.
“It’s going to be one of those ones we have to go through the process, but if you just look at his pure intent, it was purely for the ball,” Goodwin said.
“He just said I didn't have any other option, I was just going for the ball, and that's how it came up. That was his comments as he came off to the bench; he was as surprised as anyone.”
Goodwin also said that May was concussed in an incident later in the game, so he would miss next week’s game even if he isn’t suspended.
Francis Evans has been subbed out of the game following this incident involving Steven May.#AFLBluesDees pic.twitter.com/TmTKlkXZwD
— AFL (@AFL) July 19, 2025
Carlton coach Michael Voss spoke in his post-match press conference, saying he would be interested in the outcome.
“Both (May and Evans) sort of making a play at the ball, maybe one person was sort of one step late, which obviously the incident happened,” Voss explained.
“I don’t tend to read too much into it at this point in time, let the tribunal take care of it really. I mean it’s up to them to be able to adjudicate what is fair… I’ll be interested in sort of see how they look at that.”
Voss said that Frankie Evans seemed to be ok when he spoke to him, but gave him praise for how he was playing up to that point.
Goodwin also had some strong words for his side after the loss, saying the start, in particular, was unacceptable.
“When you give a team a lead, that's what happens, you suffer the consequences from an outcome perspective. So (I’m) frustrated, angry, but, reality that’s not acceptable,” Goodwin said.
“That's really been the story of a big part of our year, the inconsistency from quarter to quarter, week to week and that's what we need to learn from and grow from.”