{"id":386666,"date":"2026-04-19T02:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/386666\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T02:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:29:13","slug":"collingwood-players-claims-over-elijah-holland-behaviour-during-carlton-clash-blues-ceo-graham-wright-press-conference-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/386666\/","title":{"rendered":"Collingwood players claims over Elijah Holland behaviour during Carlton clash, Blues CEO Graham Wright press conference, video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlton have revealed that they were aware Elijah Hollands was \u201cstruggling\u201d during the Blues\u2019 clash with Collingwood on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

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Hollands finished Thursday night\u2019s game at the MCG with just one disposal from 60 per cent game time, and crowd footage of him behaving in an unusual way on the field circulated on social media.<\/p>\n

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Carlton CEO Graham Wright faced the media on Sunday morning where he made a brief statement before answering questions on the club\u2019s handling of its young star.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost our primary focus remains on caring for Elijah and making sure hw is continuing to receive the medical and welfare support he needs,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThursday night presented unprecedented and complex circumstances. We are taking this very seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are determined to ensure a considered process, not just an understanding of what happened but to ensure that key learnings come from this.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Elijah\u2019s welfare is front of mind, he will not travel to Perth this week for this weekend\u2019s game (against Fremantle).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s ok. He\u2019s getting great support from family and the medical staff from the AFL.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/p>\n

AFL, Blues release statements on Hollands \u2018mental health episode\u2019 as new details emerge<\/a><\/p>\n

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JULY 26: Elijah Hollands displayed erratic behaviour against the Pies.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Wright then confirmed the club were aware Hollands was \u201cstruggling\u201d during the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were aware that he was struggling in the game, and he has previously had anxiety and panic attacks. Our guys were dealing with him in the game, and obviously he was having some problems.\u201d Wright admitted.<\/p>\n

Wright was then asked why Hollands was out on the field for nine minutes of the crucial final term despite the Blues\u2019 knowledge of the state the 23-year-old was in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking into all of that right now. Part of the process has started and we are working through that now,\u201d the Blues boss answered.<\/p>\n

It comes as Collingwood players reportedly informed the AFL that Elijah Hollands told them he was under the influence of alchohol during Carlton\u2019s clash with the Magpies.<\/a><\/p>\n

Veteran journalist Caroline Wilson, however, said Pies players have informed the AFL, during the league\u2019s investigation, that Hollands had told them he had been drinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is the suggestion coming from Collingwood players, and Carlton have not denied (it) but certainly not confirmed (it), that Elijah Hollands was telling some Collingwood players that he had been drinking,\u201d Wilson said on 3AW on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Reporter) Sam Edmund said yesterday drugs were not involved. I am not sure where he got that information but I certainly can\u2019t confirm that. I don\u2019t know if he was drug tested.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, (he has) high anxiety and had a mental health episode.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson said she could not prove alcohol was involved but that there was strong insistence from some Collingwood players that there was.<\/p>\n

Voss vows to support Elijah Hollands | 01:41<\/p>\n

Wright was asked about the report, and said the club was still treating the matter as a mental health issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard the conjecture around that. At this stage, we don\u2019t suspect (drugs or alcohol). We\u2019re dealing with a mental health issue at the moment but we\u2019re in the process of going through all the circumstances leading up to the game, two or three weeks up to the game and if there were changes for Elijah,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n

It comes as the AFL officially requested the outcome of Carlton\u2019s review into its handling of Hollands\u2019 erratic behaviour.<\/a><\/p>\n

The league in a statement on Saturday suggested it would continue to follow up with Carlton.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe health and wellbeing of every player is the AFL\u2019s highest priority,\u201d the AFL said in a statement on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AFL has today requested Carlton to, once concluded, provide the outcome of its review of the circumstances relating to Elijah Holland\u2019s fitness to play in Thursday night\u2019s match.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AFL will continue to make inquiries with the club in relation to the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlton have revealed that they were aware Elijah Hollands was \u201cstruggling\u201d during the Blues\u2019 clash with Collingwood on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-386666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}