Changes after ugly Hollands saga a ‘landmark moment’ as clear sign of Blues ‘tension’ emerges

The AFL’s sweeping changes to mental health policies after finishing its investigation into the Elijah Hollands saga have been described as a “landmark moment” in the space.

But the Blues failing to accept responsibility is seen as a “tension” point in the ugly saga.

The league said Carlton’s lack of action in playing Hollands against Collingwood “brought the game into disrepute” as the league hit the Blues with a massive $75,000 fine.

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While the specifics around exactly what measures will be put in place, AFL health and football operations boss Laura Kane confirmed there would be improved “industry-wide healthcare governance standards” to mental health policies with the following measures:

-Mandate clubs appoint a full-time psychologist within each of the AFL and AFLW programs, with industry consultation on related

resourcing and policy requirements to commence immediately

-Review the club football department soft cap, with a view to, amongst other things, increasing minimum investment in healthcare and strengthening expert capability

-Establish industry-wide ‘psychological fitness to play’ best practice guidance, developed in consultation with club healthcare teams

-Mandate expanded mental health literacy training across football departments

-Establish an AFL health and wellbeing committee to advise the executive and commission on clinical governance and implement an industry-wide healthcare incident management system

-Host a mental health media roundtable in partnership with the Black Dog Institute in the lead-up to Spud’s Game

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Fox Footy AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley described it as a milestone moment for the game that will see millions of dollars invested in mental health.

“The sweeping changes coming are going to be regarded as a landmark moment in the mental health care of players,” Whateley said on the program.

“Clubs don’t fully understand what the implications of it are and they’re awaiting further detail the AFL has promised them tonight.

“But it will certainly see the industry spend millions of dollars in this space it will require a reshaping of the soft cap.

“And it will be looked back upon as a moment that was promoted b an incident that should never have happened and must never be allowed to happen again.

“There are certain streams, it’s quite convoluted, Andrew Dillon spoke about a change in priorities. But I suspect there will need to be a change in the whole structure of the soft cap.”

Whateley was “quite startled by the severity of the fine” that he suggested “gives you an idea of where the AFL believes the blame lies.”

However, Whateley thinks Carlton failing to accept responsibility in its statement is “clearly a source of tension”.

“What is absent is an acceptance of responsibility and an admission of failure,” he said.

“Which has been consistent with Carlton’s public stance, and I imagine, private stance, the whole way through.”

Melbourne legend Garry Lyon also thinks there will be “significant” positives to come from it.

“But there’s no misunderstanding about what the AFL is saying here; that this fault lays fairly and squarely at the feet of the Carlton Football Club,” he said.

“This is a significant fine, one of the highest in the history of footy. And the sweeping changes suggests the AFL has taken this as seriously as they possibly can.

“It’s a big day and we move forward hopefully securing the knowledge that this should never happen again, as Andrew Dillon said, and there will be steps put in place to ensure it doesn’t”