Frailty, thy name is football: On-field success, off-field drama

September 25, 2026 — 7:45pm

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It’s been a year. In April, Carlton player Elijah Hollands suffered a highly visible mental health episode during a game and remained on the field as his team succumbed to Collingwood, prompting an AFL probe and hefty fine for the Blues.

In August, five Swans players became subject to a police investigation following allegations of inappropriate touching by three women at the Pullman Hotel; one of the five, Riley Bice, is being treated as a witness, but the futures of the other four remain clouded.

Their suspensions could not be surmounted by their spirited teammates in the preliminary final, and whose long-admired club sustained considerable reputational dents.

Brisbane Lions champion Lachie Neale has spent the entire season in the crosshairs of cameras and as Instagram fodder over his personal travails and marriage separation, a salacious saga that will see him leave the Lions for Collingwood in October, having so very nearly missed the grand final due to a low blow in the preliminary final. That imbroglio’s cloud will loom large over Saturday’s showpiece.

And, in the same few weeks, Carlton’s fallen former president Luke Sayers and the wife from whom he separated in acrimony, Cate Sayers, have reached a court settlement. That settlement saw Luke Sayers forced to apologise and also recant on any suggestion or inference to the AFL’s integrity unit that Cate was........

© The Sydney Morning Herald