Sunday was an eventful afternoon for St Kilda key defender Jake Carlisle. He nearly didn’t make it to starting line after his back seized up in the warm-up and then he was reported twice in a minute just after the quarter-time siren.

Carlisle, 25, went into the umpire's book for striking North Melbourne defender Luke McDonald, before he was also reported for striking Kangaroos midfielder Declan Mountford in the melee that followed his altercation with McDonald.

St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson sat on the bench for Sunday’s game against North Melbourne and said he hadn’t seen either incident when he was asked in his post-match press conference on Sunday night.

“I don’t have to make up any white lie that I didn’t see it because I didn’t see it; I was down on the bench, so I didn’t know. Hopefully, he’ll be fine,” Richardson told journalists following St Kilda’s 49-point win at Etihad Stadium.

Before attracting the umpires’ attention at the first break, Carlisle was nearly forced out of the game before it even started after he hurt his back while kicking during St Kilda’s on ground warm up.

Richardson revealed the Saints were ‘pretty close’ to opting for young rebounding defender Brandon White to replace Carlisle, before the former Bomber had his back freed up and made a contribution in the win.

“It looked like with five minutes to go in the warm-up he wasn’t going to play. He pulled up really stiff in the back in the warm-up and young ‘Whitey’ was ready to play. But he had a really strong game,” Richardson said.

“It was after our initial warm-up so I was out on the ground, I looked over and he was lying on the ground, trying to stretch his back and it was pretty clear that it wasn’t freeing up.

“The doctors got a hold of him and did a fair bit of work on him in terms of trying to manipulate him and we’re able to get him freed up.

“Then you’ve got to take the risk of (if he cops) one knock does it happen again? He was pretty confident, that he’s had it before where it’s seized up, he gets a bit of work done and he gets out there.

“It was pretty close, we had to get him out on the ground prior to the team just to kick long because that was actually what had created the issue in the first place and he was OK.”