Carlton coach Michael Voss has launched an impassioned and emotional defence of his club, claiming Blues staffers have been “bullied” during “ball-by-ball” commentary on the fallout to Elijah Hollands’ mental health episode.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday during an at-times tense and combative press conference, Voss remained tight-lipped when asked about the Blues’ decision to play Hollands last Thursday.
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While there’d been speculation the Blues would complete and hand over their findings of their investigation into the circumstances around Hollands’ fitness to play against Collingwood to the AFL on Thursday, Voss stressed “speed is not the answer” and urged everyone to “let that process play out”.
Voss said he’d been communicating through Hollands’ family – rather than with the player himself – in recent days following his admission to hospital on Monday night.
“It’s important that we keep the distance and space right now,” he said.
“There certainly was an immediate follow up, but I don’t want it to necessarily add to all that commentary.
Michael Voss, Senior Coach of the Blues. Picture: y Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
“What we also need to acknowledge is that Elijah two years ago, or thereabouts, showed enormous courage to come forward and talk about his challenges and his issues. We all know that’s the first point that is the most significant, almost.
“The last couple of years haven’t been smooth-sailing for him or us. But 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.
“All through the discussions that I’ve had with ‘Lij’ has been very little to do about football and everything to do about life. We talk about how healthy he needs to be, the type of life he wants to live, who he wants to be – and then, ultimately, when you get those things right, now we can talk about the footballer.
“But I don’t think you should also leave out here and say that there has not been amazing care, love, support, empathy, accountability, throughout this whole process. So when we have challenging times like what we did over the weekend and you start to sift through this information you just cannot possibly come to the conclusion that is about care.”
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Voss said the club accepted it needed to look at its own processes, but wouldn’t be drawn on specifics around resources the Blues needed on matchday.
The Blues boss said he was “more than comfortable” with those at the Blues who’d been entrusted with caring for Carlton players, declaring: “I’m proud of my people and the process itself will take care of itself.”
Voss then lamented how Hollands’ “private challenge” had quickly turned into a “public event” before declaring the Blues hadn’t failed their player.
“The commentary, the conversation, the ball-by-ball play, we’ve unfortunately made it that,” he said.
“And in some ways – I’ll be really honest – it’s felt like bordering on bullying.”
As a journalist attempted to ask a follow-up question, Voss put his hand up and said: “Sorry, you’ve spoken, I’ll speak.
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“When you start to think about that is a concept, about our people, that’s really important. That’s who I care about the most. So, 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’ve drawn our own outcomes.
“We can’t judge that in a binary way. It’s complex. It’s situational. So we’ve got to find that middle ground between that type of care, but also providing the support that we need and the processing behind it. I think we acknowledge that, but that’s an industry conversation.
“If we’re going to have this proper conversation about mental health, then let’s have it … and the healthy conversation will be how we support our people in an environment that absolutely demands so much from our people and having a healthy respect between what you need to report on the game and what we need to provide in our environment to our players.
“But I won’t solve that here. I just won’t. Because the people that are in charge of the game are largely the biggest ones that can make the significant change that’s needed. It’s not the coach of the Carlton Football Club.”
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Asked to elaborate on he believed had been bullied, Voss said: “I think our people have been bullied and I think we bully for outcomes.
“All I’d just say is that we need to take into consideration the people who are involved in this. I mean, this impacts families … it effects a lot of people.
“We’re going to make sure that we have privacy right throughout this. You can have your commentary – that’s what you do – what we are charged to do is ensure that we maintain the privacy of the player. If that means that there’s judgment in behind that towards me and there’s a few bullets that needs to come our way, will we take it – because privacy is the utmost importance for us.”
Carlton will travel to Perth for its Anzac Day clash against in-form Fremantle at Optus Stadium.