\n Elijah Hollands and Wade Derksen will wear the Navy Blue in 2026.\n <\/p>\n
THE Carlton Football Club can confirm that Elijah Hollands and Wade Derksen will wear the\u00a0Navy Blue in 2026,\u00a0with both players\u00a0signing on as part of the pre-season Supplemental Selection Period (SSP).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The dual signing comes after small forward\u00a0Jesse\u00a0Motlop\u00a0was placed on\u00a0the\u00a0inactive\u00a0list\u00a0after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in January.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hollands has spent the pre-season committing himself fully to earning a spot back on the Club\u2019s AFL playing list and today\u00a0that\u00a0came to fruition,\u00a0after a full summer of commitment and dedication.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A versatile forward\/midfielder, the 23-year-old\u00a0possesses\u00a0elite endurance and clean ball use,\u00a0with the ability to\u00a0impact\u00a0games\u00a0in\u00a0a number of\u00a0different ways, as has been\u00a0evident\u00a0across his 27 games in two seasons for the Blues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Standing at\u00a0194cm, Derksen\u00a0– who had previously signed on with the Carlton Reserves program for 2026 –\u00a0brings strong aerial ability and competitiveness that will further bolster Carlton\u2019s depth heading into the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Capable of\u00a0impacting\u00a0at both ends of the ground, the 24-year-old was the leading goalkicker for the Giants 2023 VFL side\u00a0before\u00a0excelling in defence, with the following year\u00a0seeing him\u00a0named in the VFL\u2019s\u00a0Team of the\u00a0Year squad as a defender.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Playing 57 VFL games over his three and a half seasons at GWS, Derksen\u00a0can cover the\u00a0ground quickly,\u00a0is powerful in the air\u00a0and\u00a0has\u00a0the athleticism to compete consistently in one-on-one contests.\u00a0He will wear guernsey No.47.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Head of List Management Nick Austin said Hollands\u2019 strong pre-season and Derksen\u2019s immediate impact and professionalism since his arrival at Carlton were key factors in the Club\u2019s decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cElijah has attacked this pre-season with a real purpose and professionalism, and today\u2019s announcement is a true testament to the commitment he has made,\u201d Austin said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the moment last season\u00a0came to a close, his attitude, preparation and competitiveness have been at the level we expect. Elijah has real x-factor, with the capacity to play not only in the forward line but through the middle of the ground, which is a benefit for us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWade has shown significant development over the past few seasons. His versatility, athleticism and work rate stood out throughout this pre-season, and we believe he has the attributes to add real value to our squad.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth players\u00a0now have\u00a0another opportunity at the elite\u00a0level\u00a0and we look forward to seeing to seeing\u00a0them\u00a0make the most of that this season in the Navy Blue.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elijah Hollands and Wade Derksen will wear the Navy Blue in 2026. THE Carlton Football Club can confirm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-499063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}