AFL greats and media personalities Garry Lyon and Tim Watson have begun questioning the professionalism of the code in the wake of the Elijah Hollands saga, with the story continuing to unfold since Thursday.
Hollands has been admitted to hospital after suffering a mental health episode, according to Carlton.
However, Lyon says that competition and the code have failed to protect the troubled Blue.
"We don't want it happening again under any circumstances because for the first time in maybe ever I'm looking at our competition going, I'm not proud of us," Lyon said on SEN.
"We're the first to pick up on it if the NRL or another league has a situation that we look at and go, ‘How unprofessional is that?'
"Well, guess what? That spotlight's been turned on our code right now and that's not great.
"I understand the sensitivities (around Elijah's mental health), but what we're discussing now is how it got to this situation and how we can make sure it never gets to this situation again.
"We don't know everything, but we have been involved (in footy for some time), so in this instance, we do know a bit in terms of how the system works and how game day works and how relationships are within football clubs and within environments that run really deep.
"Whether it's relationships with players, with captains, with leaders, with coaches, with physios, doctors, the bloke who straps your ankles, all of those different layers.
“I'm not proud of us”
Garry and Tim discuss the unfolding situation around Carlton's Elijah Hollands.@SENBreakfast | #AFL pic.twitter.com/V9NSJPRH72
— SEN 1116 (@1116sen) April 20, 2026
"This is what we're talking about and this is why the discussion continues and why the AFL have got an enormous role to play in this and why Carlton, which I believe they will (continue to) be, have been upfront and honest with how this all came about."
Watson reiterated Lyon's empathy, whilst also questioning the professionalism of the game.
"Two things can be real - you and I can both have great empathy and sympathy for Elijah Hollands," Watson said.
"But we can also be talking about this at the same time because of the effect that it's had on the game and of the conversations around the game at the moment.
"Because as you rightly say, people look at this and they think, ‘I thought these AFL organisations were elite, I thought that they had the health and care of a player as the most important thing'.
"By what I've seen, I'm now maybe second-guessing as to whether or not that is the case."
