Lindsay Thomas weathers the storm created by his hit on Ben Reid in Round 1 North Melbourne's Lindsay Thomas has been cleared by the match review panel of any case to answer, for his controversial hit on Collingwood's Ben Reid. Lindsay Thomas in the Round 1 match against Collingwood. LINDSAY Thomas found himself at the centre of a storm in the opening round of the season when his off-the-ball bump left Collingwood defender Ben Reid bloodied and concussed, drawing strong post-match criticism from Magpies coach Nathan Buckley. "When it first happened I didn't really think too much of it," Thomas said. We just hit heads. We both went down and were a bit dazed. After that I had a few tough days. I was under scrutiny but I tried not to take too much notice. Thomas said any tension between the two clubs was quickly defused. I made sure Ben was all right. I asked the club to find out how he was, just to make sure he was OK. North Melbourne V Collingwood at Etihad Stadium, 31/3/13. Clash of heads between Ben Reid and Lindsay Thomas saw Reid off with a bloody mouth and players in a scuffle after Scott Pendlebury tested Lindsay Thomas's Picture: Salpigtidis George Source: Herald Sun Buckley also rang Thomas to clarify his stance on the incident. Yeah, Bucks shot me a phone call and explained where he was coming from. It was pretty simple. We had a friendly phone call and moved on. I don't know him personally but that was good by him. He also appreciated the fact that his own coach had defended him so strongly in the post-match media conference. It's the little things like that that Brad does and he'd do it for any North Melbourne player.