Elijah Hollands says he will be \u201cforever grateful\u201d for the support he received in the fallout of what proved to be his final AFL game.<\/p>\n
Hollands, who was officially delisted on Wednesday afternoon, suffered what Carlton described as a medical episode in a match against Collingwood in April.<\/p>\n
Carlton was sanctioned $75,000 after the AFL deemed there was enough visual cues to suggest Hollands should have been removed from the game earlier.<\/p>\n
Hollands never played again.<\/p>\n
Last month, Hollands returned to his local club in country Victoria as part of his small steps back to normality and released a heartfelt message on Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball means an extreme amount to me,\u201d Hollands said in part.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad played professional footy, my great-grandfather played professional footy, my brother plays professional footy \u2014 it is everything I have lived and breathed for as long as I can remember.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have only ever wanted to do one thing my entire life: copy what was done before me and play AFL footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was something that I just knew I was going to do when I was a kid, and it was all I ever cared about \u2013 and now, unfortunately, that purpose I had is no longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hollands played 14 matches for Gold Coast Suns before joining his brother at Carlton for a further 33.<\/p>\n
He said those three seasons alongside Ollie were a dream come true.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love this game, but I have come to realise that there are things in my life that are far more important than footy right now, and they\u2019re the things I will now prioritise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an extremely confident 18-year-old, I certainly envisioned my career going a whole lot differently, but I am okay with accepting that it just isn\u2019t in the plans set for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will cherish being able to share the stage with Ollie, and I am so grateful to say that I have done what so many dream of: playing in front of 90,000 people at the MCG with my own brother. That is something very special to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hollands finished his post by thanking the AFL community.<\/p>\n
\u201cl\u2019ll be moving into the next chapter of my life, leaving what will feel like a big hole to fill, but I am excited about what can come from having my health and mind in much greater shape,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLastly, I want to thank all the people who have supported me throughout my time in footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith my challenges being so public, one thing I have noticed is that I have been backed by the greater AFL community, which I will be forever grateful for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that kind of support can be shown more to both athletes and the people around each and every one of us.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait to be able to support the great friends I\u2019ve made in footy, and Ollie, from the other side of the fence. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elijah Hollands says he will be \u201cforever grateful\u201d for the support he received in the fallout of what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[32465,325111,383404,72756,325639,455678,33482,437935,455677,386027,455708,455720,455676,380523,382330,455691,376457,387600,638,455698,318760,455719,410812,386898,455703,455716,9356,455679,64,63,55,639,455681,6856,455690,10990,401193,78574,455684,455707,421935,596,9116,455693,5588,528,455705,9130,455687,336553,455710,387180,379545,455682,435721,455714,455715,455695,455709,455680,455694,1202,455711,391190,455700,113489,67651,455704,455717,455686,384680,311482,455692,378954,408736,455702,455696,455713,381011,43961,455697,283403,388615,6622,20246,455701,61963,134866,281377,455712,1314,85,22410,379302,389168,215379,384471,380055,74713,455706,455689,455683,455685,455718,403687,377779,383216,379066,391669,386482,378650,380911,380383,455699,380519,455688,39,41313],"class_list":["post-886018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-month","tag-my-life","tag-383404","tag-72756","tag-000-people","tag-14-matches","tag-33482","tag-a-big-decision","tag-a-big-hole","tag-a-dream","tag-a-further-33","tag-a-further-33-he","tag-a-heartfelt-message","tag-a-kid","tag-a-match","tag-a-medical-episode","tag-a-slew","tag-a-whole-lot","tag-afl","tag-afl-footy","tag-afternoon","tag-again-last","tag-all-the-people","tag-an-announcement","tag-an-extreme-amount","tag-an-extremely-confident-18-year-old","tag-april","tag-april-carlton","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-both-athletes","tag-carlton","tag-carlton-delisting","tag-collingwood","tag-country-victoria","tag-elijah-hollands","tag-emotional-post","tag-enough-visual-cues","tag-every-one","tag-football","tag-footy","tag-former-carlton-player-elijah-hollands","tag-front","tag-getty-images","tag-getty-images-hollands","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-heartfelt-afl-farewell","tag-heartfelt-message","tag-his-afl-dream","tag-his-brother","tag-his-career","tag-his-final-afl-game","tag-his-final-game","tag-his-football-journey","tag-his-local-club","tag-his-post","tag-his-silence-months","tag-his-small-steps","tag-hollands","tag-instagram","tag-james-wiltshire-afl-photos","tag-just-one","tag-just-one-disposal","tag-kind","tag-last-month","tag-michael-klein","tag-michael-willson-afl-photos","tag-much-greater-shape","tag-my-brother","tag-my-career","tag-my-challenges","tag-my-dad","tag-my-entire-life","tag-my-great-grandfather","tag-my-health-and-mind","tag-my-own-brother","tag-my-time","tag-newswire-sport","tag-normality","tag-ollie","tag-one-thing","tag-part","tag-picture","tag-professional-footy","tag-purpose","tag-scandals","tag-silence","tag-so-many-dream","tag-social-media","tag-sports","tag-support","tag-the-afl","tag-the-afl-community","tag-the-end","tag-the-fallout","tag-the-fence","tag-the-game","tag-the-game-earlier-hollands","tag-the-great-friends","tag-the-greater-afl-community","tag-the-highly-publicised-medical-episode","tag-the-hollands-incident","tag-the-mcg","tag-the-next-chapter","tag-the-other-side","tag-the-people","tag-the-plans","tag-the-stage","tag-the-support","tag-the-things","tag-this-game","tag-this-kick","tag-this-season","tag-those-three-seasons","tag-top-stories","tag-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886018","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=886018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}