![\"Voss](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0d3379861bed5c710df7c924904c21a7fa0cccfd.jpg\")
Camera IconVoss and Hollands after last week\u2019s game. Credit: JOEL CARRETT\/AAPIMAGE<\/p>\nMichael Voss says he and his staff have been \u201cbullied\u201d over Carlton\u2019s handling of Elijah Hollands, with the Blues coach lashing out at public criticism of the club.<\/p>\n
Speaking publicly for the first time since the immediate aftermath of last Thursday\u2019s game against Collingwood, which saw Hollands experience a mental health episode on-field, Voss defended the club and stressed the player\u2019s challenges must be private rather than public.<\/p>\n
Hollands was this week admitted to hospital in the aftermath of last week\u2019s match, which has the club and WorkSafe Victoria investigating the circumstances around their handling of the player.<\/p>\n
Voss urged the public to show patience with the process and respect the privacy of all involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve unfortunately\u2026 rather than making this a private challenge, we\u2019ve made this a public event,\u201d Voss said at a press conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commentary, the conversation, the ball-by-ball play\u2026 we\u2019ve unfortunately made it that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some ways \u2013 I\u2019ll be really honest \u2013 it\u2019s felt like bordering on bullying.<\/p>\n
Camera IconVoss and Hollands after last week\u2019s game. Credit: JOEL CARRETT\/AAPIMAGE<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you start to think about then that as a concept about our people, that\u2019s really important. That\u2019s who I care about the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo rather than show compassion and empathy through a really difficult situation, we are being really judgmental, with knowing little facts, without understanding history and background, and we\u2019ve drawn our own outcomes. And we can\u2019t judge that in a binary way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s complex. It\u2019s situational.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked to expand on his comment around bullying, Voss said: \u201cI think our people have been bullied. And we bully for outcomes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to take into consideration the people involved in this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis impacts families. It affects a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voss said the investigation was \u201cnot about speed\u201d and said it was likely there would be \u201csome findings out the back of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The coach said he had been in communication with the Hollands family over the past few days, rather than the player himself, saying it was \u201cimportant we keep the distance and space right now\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4ba6f57381676bd19454c440e5c3af83aa729973.jpg\")
Camera IconMichael Voss at his press conference on Thursday. Credit: Daniel Pockett\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Voss stressed the club had provided the appropriate level of support, care, love, empathy and accountability toward Hollands over several years as the 23-year-old dealt with a range of issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last couple of years haven\u2019t been smooth sailing for him or us,\u201d Voss said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what we have done, and our team of people have done, is provided amazing mentoring, counselling, guidance, specialists and professionals both inside and out, all for the opportunity for a young man to be able to have a career.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd all through the discussions that I\u2019ve had with Lij\u2026 has been very little to do with football, and everything to do about life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voss said one thing that could not be in question was the level of care the club had shown towards the 47-gamer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just cannot possibly come to the conclusion that it is about care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe accept that we need to look at process, and that process will show itself over whatever time it needs to be. But there is that care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lifeline: 13 11 14<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Voss says he and his staff have been \u201cbullied\u201d over Carlton\u2019s handling of Elijah Hollands, with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,3239,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-624761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-carlton-blues","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624761","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=624761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}