For Michael Voss and Carlton, this is much worse than blowing another lead

April 17, 2026 — 6:57pm

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The question of why Carlton allowed Elijah Hollands to remain on the field for the majority of Thursday night’s close loss to Collingwood, when he was behaving erratically and could not perform to standard, will linger.

By Friday morning, the Blues had the mental health diagnosis that explained Hollands’ erratic movements, and rightly the club and the AFL made his welfare their paramount concern.

The Hollands episode is unusual, even though there have been numerous examples of AFL players who had severe anxiety during games.

Typically, those footballers either surmounted that ailment or they did not exhibit the kind of gestures that drew public attention to Hollands.

Hollands himself had experienced issues of this kind in the past during games, but had managed to overcome it and perform. This time, he could not.

The combination of........

© The Sydney Morning Herald