Collingwood AFL coach Nathan Buckley will instruct his players to deliver and expect more hard physical clashes given what North Melbourne’s Lindsay Thomas got away with.

Buckley infuriated Kangaroos coach Brad Scott by predicting post-match that Thomas would be in “strife” after an incident on Sunday which injured Magpie defender Ben Reid.

When Thomas, whose decision to bump Reid caused a clash of heads which left the Magpie groggy and needing stitches, was cleared by the match review panel (MRP) on Monday, Buckley said the Kangaroo was lucky.

Thomas admitted himself on Tuesday he thought he was in trouble after viewing footage of the incident.

Buckley went further on Tuesday night, saying the panel’s decision would change the way teams approach the game.

“You can only deal with the way the game is adjudicated at various times,” Buckley told Melbourne’s 3AW radio.

“The game does change – that contact and that action five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago would have had a very different connotation to it.

“It’s different today for me and my understanding of it than it was for me on Saturday.

“I will definitely be coaching my players around expecting that contact and potentially delivering that contact more often, when you’ve been coaching against it for the last couple of years.”

MRP chairman Mark Fraser said on Tuesday the main reason Thomas’ action was deemed an accident and not an offence was that he didn’t jump while bumping Reid.

“A head clash is deemed a complete accident,” Fraser told the AFL website.

“The only time it wouldn’t be is if Thomas jumped into the air.”