AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley labelled Elijah Hollands’ mental health episode and the subsequent fallout as “probably the most unsettling story I’ve seen in my time covering the game”.
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As Carlton continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding Hollands’ fitness to play Thursday night’s Blues-Magpies clash, Whateley and Garry Lyon, as well as the On The Couch panel, on Monday night broke down the most pressing and important talking points on Kayo Sports.
‘ALARMING’ UPDATE PROVES PLAYER WELFARE TRUMPS ALL
The Blues on Monday night confirmed Hollands had been admitted to hospital, with the club asking media and the public for privacy for the family.
Carlton’s press release was released while Fox Footy’s On The Couch was on-air.
“That is alarming news there surrounding Elijah Hollands and what has been a tough weekend for footy and a really tough weekend for Elijah Hollands,” On The Couch host Jack Riewoldt told Kayo Sports.
“There’s a human at the end of it.”
Four-time premiership Hawk Jordan Lewis said Hollands’ hospitalisation proved the footy community “should treat these situations delicately”.
“I think there is a thirst for knowledge and a thirst for answers because what we saw wasn’t natural,” Lewis told On The Couch.
“It’s unprecedented and we haven’t seen that before, at least not in my time in football.
“But I think you have to approach these things thinking of the kid involved and the human side of it, and to treat it with such care and don’t become an expert overnight.”
FRESH FOOTAGE EMERGES AS BLUES DUBBED ‘UNIMPRESSIVE’
Lewis and Riewoldt’s comments came around an hour after AFL 360 revealed new footage of Hollands during two breaks in play on Thursday night.
Amid continued external commentary around Carlton’s handling of Hollands – both before and during Thursday night’s game – vision showed Hollands in conversation, firstly, with coach Michael Voss at quarter-time then Blues head of development Jordan Russell at half-time as the team walked towards the MCG rooms.
“The idea that this (situation) concluded and then was revealed as an issue is just not true,” Whateley said. “People in the stands had seen it, but those close to him and have responsibility for him were deeply involved with him during the breaks.”
Whateley added the Blues had been “unimpressive” since Thursday night and still had a lot to answer for.
“I think one of the dangerous consequences of having this play out in front of a huge crowd and on the main stage of our No.1 sport in the country is there’s a conversation around one man’s mental health, which has very little regard for his mental health,” he said.
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“All the stopgaps that could’ve been put in place to not have him in this position at the moment, hugely problematic – and something that Carlton are going to have to own. It’s not a flattering picture of a footy club.”
Collingwood vice-captain Brayden Maynard on Monday said he was aware Magpies teammates were discussing Hollands’ concerning behaviour on Thursday night, with the AFL Players’ Association “intimately” involved in Carlton’s investigation.
Speaking on AFL 360, Lyon said there might be “a level of complexity that we’re not aware of”. But he added that “no one in footy I know that I’ve spoken to can explain how this was allowed to take place”.
Asked where the layers of failing were, Lyon said: “All over the place.
“It’s brothers, it’s teammates, it’s captains, it’s doctors, it’s coaches, it’s physios, strappers. The club psychologist is not there – I found that unusual when I read that.
“I think’s there’s whole layers of contact that should’ve been there for him (that) run really deep. There’s no hiding from this. I’m not saying Carlton want to hide from it – they have to be absolutely upfront and thorough – but we’ve got to make sure this never happens again.
“It’s extraordinary that it’s happened.
Geelong legend Tom Hawkins labelled the whole situation as “messy”.
“It’s hard to know who knows what and what information is correct,” Hawkins told Kayo Sports’ On The Couch.
“You hear Graham Wright say he (Hollands) has had ongoing issues and know that they (the Blues) have dealt with them at times. But it just seems such a risk that you play a player that is so anxious or that is having troubles that he has.
“I only know from my experience in the game and the support would’ve been around me at times in my career, but it just seems amazing that this has slipped through the cracks.”
ODD HOLLANDS SNUBS
Following Hawkins’ comments, the On The Couch panel highlighted two passages of play from Thursday night’s game where Hollands was loose inside 50, but ultimately ignored both times by Blues teammates.
Hollands finished the game against the Magpies with just one disposal for the match. He played 85 per cent game time in the first half, but just 55 per cent of the third quarter and 24 per cent of the fourth term.
“In the end, how much he played, what impact he had is not what we’re talking about,” seven-time All-Australian Nathan Buckley told Kayo Sports’ On The Couch. “It’s actually about how he was, his welfare, how he fronted, whether he was put in a position where he was exposed to potentially greater injury or greater duress.
“He has to take some responsibility and accountability for putting himself there – and we hope our processes and our systems do well enough that we have players put their hands up and say: ‘I’m not capable of playing today.’ I think we’re getting better at that, but maybe we’ve got some work to do.”
‘CONCERN’ FOR THE BROADER GAME
For Lyon, after watching Hollands and absorbing all the fallout, the fact Hollands took the field and played so much of the game in the modern-day AFL environment meant the Melbourne legend had “arrived at a point where I’m concerned about the game”.
“I’m concerned about how we could have a circumstance in this so-called uber-professional environment that we continue to espouse and push to anyone who will listen that we are cutting-edge and got world’s best practices – I’m staggered,” he said.
“If you’ve played or coached in the circumstance, you are acutely aware of the environment and the circumstances of the lead-up to a game and what happens in that time and how much contact you have with everyone.
“It’s such an intimate environment, so to have this go either unnoticed or allowed to happen, at some level, Carlton will come out of this as being ill-equipped to handle any of the circumstances that are subsequently found.”
Blues under fire after Hollands call | 06:07
‘SET UP TO FAIL’: BLUES ON A ‘HIDING TO NOTHING’
While the Blues said on Friday Hollands had suffered a mental health episode – with SEN’s Sam Edmund reporting they were “absolutely certain” – on Sunday Wright toned that down slightly, saying “at this stage, we don’t suspect (drugs or alcohol)”.
Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph on Monday night reported on Kayo Sports that Hollands had voluntarily submitted himself to a range of tests in the wake of last Thursday night.
Nonetheless, Buckley pointed out the Blues were “on a hiding to nothing”, with medical privacy rules under AFL policy limiting what can be disclosed without a player’s consent.
“All of this is assumption, too, because the facts aren’t available for public consumption – and they’re not available for Carlton either,” Buckley said.
“When you’re part of the illicit drugs policy as an AFL player, you are protected. So that information doesn’t go to your coaches or the people who do your contracts. The AFL maintains that information and holds that tight for player welfare.
“My argument would be that Carlton are set up to fail in this particular instance – and all of the criticism that comes to them in terms of the particular evening and whether he should have played or not, they don’t have all the information, unfortunately. But they are expected to glean from his state at a certain time whether they should play him or not.
“And I think they effectively did that. The argument would be whether it should have been earlier that they took him out of the contest or used him sparingly.”
Buckley added: “There’s become an assumption in football that when it’s ‘my team’ that we have all the information on all of the elements of the club, all of the players, ‘why are we winning and losing, give us all the information’. The difficulty here is it’s a welfare issue, so Carlton are on a hiding to nothing.
Carlton aware Hollands was ‘struggling’ | 01:18
“They won’t be able to provide the transparent thoughts and opinions – because some of them would be against the AFL and the policy as it stands, which have actually held one arm behind their back when they’re dealing with a player such as Elijah in this situation – assuming that this is accurate, because largely we’re talking without authority.
“There are people in AFL House that do know this intimately. The club doctor would know that intimately and potentially the psychologist at the club would know it intimately. But outside of that, it’s a fineable offence for anyone outside of those two people in a club to know that information about their player.”
‘BIG RAMIFICATIONS’ FOR THE AFL?
The AFL on Saturday night confirmed it had requested Carlton to hand over, once completed, the outcome of its review into the circumstances relating to Hollands’ fitness to play.
Asked if there’d be anything in the Carlton review that would satisfy the AFL, Lewis said: “I don’t think so.”
But Lewis added: “The banner of mental health is so complex and we are trying to look for answers that are black and white. And unfortunately it’s not like that.
“The AFL will no doubt ask Carlton when did they see some erratic behaviour, when did they see certain things, when did they change his position or pull him out of the game – all that sort of stuff. But it’s still complex and I don’t think these answers are so obvious.
“The questions we’re asking the club might seem obvious for us, but again under the banner of mental health, it is a complicated thing.”
Riewoldt said the overriding issue Carlton must address is the duty of care for the player.
But the triple premiership Tiger suggested there could be “big ramifications out of this for the whole AFL”, flagging the possibility of official pre-game policies for clubs.
Blue spotlight after Hollands episode | 06:07
“When players go out to play, you’re checked within an inch of your life in terms of your physical capabilities, but this mental side is becoming so big,” he said.
“With this being a high-profile case from the weekend, I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to get mental health checks really close to the bounce of the ball to make sure the players are in the right headspace to go out (and play).
“That has to be the catch net to make sure these stars going out in front of 80,000 people in a high octane environment are right to go, not only physically but mentally as well.
BUCKS’ PLAYER ‘PANIC ATTACKS’ REVEAL
When asked if he, as a coach, could confidently distinguish whether a player was suffering with anxiety and mental health issues in the lead-up to a game, Buckley revealed he knew of two players that had suffered in-game panic attacks when he coached Collingwood between 2012 and 2021.
“I’ve coached two players who have had panic attacks during games and we’ve become aware of that. The bench are the first people to become aware of that,” Buckley said.
“The players have opted out – and those players both struggled in their career once they’d reached that stage. It was really difficult for them to reconcile that or to be able to remove that pressure.
“It takes a lot of time, I think, to unpack that. So there’s two examples over a 10-year senior coaching career – and I think Elijah’s is quite similar.
“There would be a lot of people struggling at different times. This game takes you to the absolute limits mentally, emotionally and physically. You are going to be tested and fall short at times, and that resilience is definitely something that ebbs and flows, as potentially Elijah had reached the end of his resilience at this stage.”
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