ELIJAH Hollands was made to wait before he broke into Gold Coast's senior team late last season. But now, as he enters his third campaign with the Suns, the exciting midfielder has plans to stay there.
Hollands was the Suns' prized No.7 pick at the 2020 draft, joining the club on the back of a knee reconstruction in his draft year. That the injury came in the wiped out COVID season meant he was on level pegging with most of the rest of his draft class in terms of games played that year.
But it also made for a range of difficulties with his rehabilitation program, stretching his time on the sidelines into his first year at the Suns. His second season was met with a run of strong VFL form, before breaking into the side for the final five weeks, including claiming a Rising Star nomination in round 21. It has set up different goals for 2023.
"I want to play every week," Hollands told AFL.com.au this week as he set his sights on a breakout season.
"That's the starting point. I want to play 23 games and then the finals as well. I want to play my role every week and be someone who's relied upon in the group and by the back end of the season hopefully I'm recognised as someone who is a key component of the side."
PRACTICE MATCH FIXTURE Check out who your club is playing
Hollands admits to the challenge of waiting until round 19 last season before winning an AFL call-up. He kicked two goals from 10 disposals on debut with his best game coming against Hawthorn two weeks later when he collected 23 disposals and kicked two goals.
"At the time it was very frustrating. All you want to do is play top level footy and the coaches understood that at the time that it was something not easy to deal with but I think in the end it is something that is going to hold me in good stead and they were telling me that at the time as well," he said.
"It just made me a little bit more balanced and I continued to work on the things that were stopping me from playing AFL footy. As I was able to crack in I was able to show the work paid off."
LIST ANALYSIS Which club has the most All-Australians, top-10 picks?
His off-season work is starting to pay off now. Hollands has always been an excellent aerobic athlete, but has taken that to another level at the Suns this pre-season, wiping six seconds off his best 2km time trial run (he clocked in at 5:54 minutes) and is eyeing one of Gold Coast's wing positions.
The tall and damaging midfielder, who boasts a penetrating kick and ability close to goal too, put a focus on getting leaner and has felt the benefits.
"I think I dropped about five kilos over summer. I've always been able to run but changing my body shape is only going to help me especially as I'm going to transition eventually into becoming a midfielder. That was a big focus for me and I was able to get myself to a good foundation," he said.
Hollands' growing presence within the Suns has also been recognised internally, with the 20-year-old recently added to the club's emerging leaders group.
GETTABLE Your weekly trade and draft fix, starting in 2023
"It's something I work on in the background and naturally it comes out not being afraid to talk. It's nice recognition and I'm starting to look to the top-line leaders like Touk (Miller) and Jarrod (Witts) and Noah (Anderson) and those boys to learn off. I have the intention one day of being in their shoes," he said.
Hollands has been joined in the AFL by younger brother Ollie at Carlton, with the Blues snapping up the hard-working midfielder at pick No.11 last year. The Suns and Blues face each other twice this season, but could a third Hollands brother – Austin – be in the AFL in a few years as well?
"Aussie's 15 now so he's putting the work in at the moment," Hollands said. "He's just moved up to Sydney, he's a couple of years off so we'll see how he goes."
