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<\/p>\nYet an on-field “mental health episode” suffered by Carlton midfielder Elijah Hollands has exposed the limits of these support structures in the full glare of the public spotlight.<\/p>\n
In one of Australian rules football’s most-anticipated match-ups, the 23-year-old struggled in front of a crowd of 78,058 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground as the Blues lost a tight game to old rivals Collingwood last Thursday.<\/p>\n
Hollands, who has spoken of his battles with mental health and alcohol problems in the past, appeared disorientated and confused at times, unable to engage normally with the play.<\/p>\n
Despite spending most of the match on field, he finished with only a single disposal \u2013 the statistic denoting a kick or a hand-pass \u2013 almost unheard of in a sport where midfielders rack up 20-plus per game.<\/p>\n
With millions watching the game on screens, the reaction to Hollands’ performance was swift and scathing.<\/p>\n
Fans and media pundits asked whether Carlton, one of the AFL’s oldest and best-resourced clubs, had failed in their duty of care to a player who may have been unfit to play.<\/p>\n
Carlton said Hollands had suffered a mental health episode on field and confirmed late on Monday he had been admitted to hospital.<\/p>\n
Hollands’ management agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The club’s CEO Graham Wright said officials were aware that he was struggling in the game but did not believe he was affected by alcohol or drugs.<\/p>\n
“Our guys were dealing with him in the game and obviously he was having some problems,” Wright told reporters.<\/p>\n
Collingwood players also picked up on Hollands’ behaviour during the match, defender Brayden Maynard said.<\/p>\n
“I overheard a few things, but as I said, I was too focused on the game to really understand what was actually going on,” he said.<\/p>\n
While Wright described Hollands’ ordeal on Thursday as presenting “unprecedented and complex circumstances”, the player has previously discussed suffering symptoms during a match.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Michael Voss (senior coach Carlton Blues) and Elijah Hollands after the game against Collingwood Magpies in Melbourne, Australia last Thursday. Photo: James Wiltshire\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n
He told Melbourne newspaper The Age last October he had suffered a “mini panic attack” against the Sydney Swans earlier in the year, describing himself as being like a complete pedestrian, unable to do what he normally does well on field.<\/p>\n
“I went to the bench and told our psychologist I could not breathe \u2013 I could not settle down, (and) my head was spinning,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It was a pretty worrying moment because footy had been somewhere I could go to, and all those (negative) thoughts I was having away from the club would just disappear.<\/p>\n
“So it was really confronting to have that for the first time, where it really showed up.”<\/p>\n
Unlike head-knocks during play, where detailed concussion protocols are triggered and players are quickly removed from games if their safety is at risk, there are no official guard-rails in place for managing mental health incidents on field.<\/p>\n
The Hollands episode has prompted other clubs to review their practices.<\/p>\n
Melbourne Demons captain Max Gawn said he would talk to the team’s leadership and ask what they would do in a similar situation.<\/p>\n
“But you have to remember how hard that actually is to call live,” said Gawn.<\/p>\n
The AFL has left Carlton to review whether Hollands was fit to play but requested the club share its findings. Carlton may face a fine of A$50,000 (\u20ac30,000) if found to have played Hollands when unfit, according to AFL rules.<\/p>\n
Hollands’ father posted a message of support on social media.<\/p>\n
“I know who my son is \u2013 and I will lift him up until he is restored in full,” he wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yet an on-field “mental health episode” suffered by Carlton midfielder Elijah Hollands has exposed the limits of these…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[986,103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-421182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}