“Bordering on bullying”: Voss staunchly defends Carlton amid Hollands saga

Carlton’s Michael Voss was very strong in his defence of his club amid the Elijah Hollands situation.

The Blues coach suggested Holland’s mental health episode was made into a public event and that the media coverage was “bordering on bullying”.

He suggests the criticism the club as a whole has received has been ill-directed.

“Unfortunately rather than make this a private challenge we’ve made it a public event,” Voss said at his press conference on Thursday morning.

“The commentary, the conversation, the ball-by-ball play, we’ve unfortunately made it that.

“In some ways, I’ll be really honest, it’s felt bordering on bullying.

“That's the way…”

As the media interjected, Voss continued: “Sorry, you've spoken, I'll speak.

“So when you start to think about then that as 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. So I think we acknowledge that. But that's an industry conversation.”

Voss urged the AFL industry to seriously hold conversations about the mental health challenges in the game.

“If we're going to have this proper conversation about mental health, then let's have it,” he added.

“But this is an industry conversation 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.”

When asked who he believes have been bullied, Voss staunchly defended his Carlton people.

“I think our people have been bullied, and I think we bully for outcomes,” he said further.

“All I'd just say is that we need to take into consideration the people involved in this. This impacts families, it affects a lot of people.”

Voss insisted that the privacy of Hollands will continue to be at the forefront for Carlton.

“The detail of that will obviously (be) in the process and the privacy of that, but that's what we're going to keep, is make sure that we have privacy right throughout this,” Voss said.

“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, we will take it.

“Because privacy is the utmost importance for us.”

Sam McClure asked if Voss understands the challenges on how the episode was viewed, not just by the media, but by fans at the MCG and those sitting at home.

“Yes, and I think we all need to accept that,” he replied. “Rather than the judgment, let's not look at this as binary.

“It's a complex situation that has history and background. There's no one the same, but in behind it is a wave of support from people that are on the ground, that live in the shadows, that work with people daily on this sort of stuff, and I think we should applaud them. That's what I really believe.

“So interpret that as you like. I'm proud of my people, and the process itself will take care of itself, and we need to put our support behind that.

“So I think for this time being, what's said has been said. I'm sure there may be many questions that you have, but ultimately, I'm also here to prepare for a football game, and we've got one in two days' time. So we need to move forward. And if we're prepared to move forward on that, then I'm happy to stay here. If I'm not quite satisfied, then this might be over.”

The Blues will now look ahead to Saturday night's clash with Fremantle in Perth.