King: Time to wrap our arms around Hollands, he's in a bad place

The footy world needs to wrap its arms around Elijah Hollands.

That's the message from SEN's David King amid concerns for his welfare after vision of him behaving in an irregular manner during the match started circulating on social media.

An erratic looking Hollands is seen flipping the bird to his teammates and the crowd. At times he appeared disorientated.

The 24-year-old was said to be shattered and very emotional after the clash with Collingwood at the MCG which Carlton lost by five points after Talor Byrne missed the chance to draw the match with a kick after the final siren.

SEN's expert panel dissected the vision, discussed what happened and what was said by Carlton on Fireball as we wait for more information from the club.

SAM EDMUND

"It’s extremely sensitive.

"This is a player who has worked extremely hard to get back.

"He has been honest about his issues with alcohol and mental health issues. He was cut by the Blues with a year to run on his deal so that shows you where he was at in life.

"Last night he touched the ball once 60% game time, quite clearly, he was not anywhere close to being fit to be out there.

"The vision – and there is a lot - was flying around before the game had finished. I chose not to distribute it, I didn’t feel comfortable with it given everything that has gone on with him. The official line from Carlton is that he had an off night.

"Voss spoke of Elijah’s distress and remorse. Shattered he had let Voss down. The pair spoke for some time post-match. He was very emotional post-match.

"His body language and interaction with his teammates in-game. Some just walked off on him.

"They wouldn’t have put him out there to start with if he wasn’t right - surely? They have to have felt comfortable he was right to play a game. The interactions with the opposition too, they (Collingwood) knew something was up.

"I don’t think we have seen anything like it.

"Details beyond that are light on but there is a thirst for answers.

"When you see something like that – it’s unprecedented – there will be a push for answers, and it will bleed out over the next few days.

"Everyone is looking for answers.

"Carlton have said they will speak with Elijah again as a welfare check as much as anything. I’m not sure if there is an AFL involvement to get to the bottom of what happened.

"When Carlton wakes up today and they receive the calls, maybe we get a more detailed explanation. We don’t know what happened when – we don’t know when they started realising something might be wrong.

"I think we hear from Carlton and the AFL today."

KANE CORNES

"It’s the most bizarre thing I've ever seen. Do Carlton understand the seriousness? Saying he had an off night, all of that, is that going to cut it? I don’t think it is.

"It’s alarming for me.

"If George Hewett played instead of Hollands, Carlton win.

"There is a broader discussion to what led to him being out there.

"Was this man fit to start? What gave you the confidence he was ok to play the game when all the vision speaks to the contrary.

"It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances and one the club has to confront. What the club has done wont cut it."

DAVID KING

"Can we separate the two issues? We have to support the kid; he is clearly in a bad place.

"It’s time for them to wrap their arms around him. Mental health is front of mind everywhere and we have had tragedy this week.

"From a football point of view, the responsibility of the line coach or head coach to see this problem in real time and the fact it was unchecked for three quarters alarms me.

"I don’t understand how so many people in the stadium can see he is not contributing to this game. He was not assisting his team, he couldn’t get his hands on the footy, he was rattled, he was out of position, why did he play three quarters?

"If Elijah had sat out at half time, use the bench rotations, find a way to subsidise losing that player. He offered nothing for three and a half quarters of footy. How does that happen? I don’t understand that from a line coach point of view.

"I couldn’t stop watching him, you could tell something was off."

SAM MITCHELL

“I throw my support behind Elijah, it must be difficult whatever is happening.

“There are things that happen with players and you have to manage and support them in the best way.

“Every club has players with basic things like moving house or being a bit sick or there’s been bigger issues like in family life.

“We have to make sur we’re supporting them.

“The right amount of people is not everyone and it’s not no-one. I trust that people will tell me what I need to know. If they tell me to go easy on someone I do, if they tell me why fine, if they don’t fine.

“It’s not something that is abnormal to think about.”