{"id":545807,"date":"2026-04-23T03:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/545807\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T03:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:46:07","slug":"carlton-coach-michael-voss-accuses-media-of-bullying-after-elijah-hollands-incident-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/545807\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlton coach Michael Voss accuses media of bullying after Elijah Hollands incident | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Embattled Carlton coach Michael Voss has defended his staff and accused the media of bullying as the spotlight intensifies on the club for allowing Elijah Hollands to play last week during a mental health episode<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hollands behaved erratically in the match against Collingwood and is now in hospital<\/a>, and speculation has focused on how Voss\u2019s staff had allowed the young player to take the field given his struggles were obvious even from the stands.<\/p>\n

Fronting a large press pack on Thursday at Princes Park ahead of Saturday\u2019s match against Fremantle, Voss said he wanted to respect the AFL\u2019s investigation into the club\u2019s actions on the night and \u201cwe accept that we need to look at process\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he said that in a \u201ccomplex situation that has history and background\u201d his staff deserve praise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of my people, and the process itself will take care of itself, and we need to put our support behind that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve unfortunately rather than make this a private challenge, we\u2019ve made this a public event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commentary, the conversation, the ball-by-ball play, we\u2019ve unfortunately made it that, and in some ways \u2013 I\u2019ll be really honest \u2013 it\u2019s felt like bordering on bullying.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked to clarify who was being bullied, Voss was explicit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our people are being bullied, and I think [the media] bully for outcomes, and all I\u2019d just say is that we need to take into consideration the people who are involved in this,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, this impacts families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Voss\u2019s team have won one of six matches in the 2026 AFL season. Photograph: Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

He said the media commentary had been jumping to conclusions.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than show compassion and empathy through a really difficult situation, [the media] are being really judgmental with knowing little facts, without understanding history and background, and [they] have drawn [their] own outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Hollands spoke two years ago of his personal challenges it was a \u201csignificant\u201d moment, Voss said, adding \u201cthe last couple of years haven\u2019t been smooth sailing for him or us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coach said he had not spoken to Hollands directly in recent days, instead communicating with his family. Voss maintained he and the club were committed to maintaining the privacy of the player.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have your commentary, that\u2019s what [the media] do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are charged to do is ensure that we maintain the privacy of the player, and if that means that there\u2019s judgment in behind that towards me, and there\u2019s a few bullets that need to come our way, well we\u2019ll take it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all been impacted in some way, as families and you individually, maybe there\u2019s a few here that have struggled with some mental health in recent times, maybe it\u2019s been a family member, maybe it\u2019s been a friend, maybe it\u2019s been a loved one.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd all I just ask is \u2026 \u2018what would you want right now?\u2019 And that\u2019s all we ask.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Embattled Carlton coach Michael Voss has defended his staff and accused the media of bullying as the spotlight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-545807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}