A RETURN worth waiting for.

It didn’t take long for Ollie Hollands to remind people why Carlton people had been so excited by the young wingman’s start in the AFL.

Playing his first senior game in eight weeks following surgery on a fractured collarbone, Hollands once again impressed in the 71-point win over the Eagles — Hollands’ first victory since the one against the same opposition in Round 7.

Recalled into the team this week alongside fellow draftee Lachie Cowan, Hollands amassed 17 disposals and six score involvements in the Blues’ fifth straight victory.

“What a great game to come back in for and be a part of,” Hollands told Carlton Media post-match.

“With the broken collarbone, we weren’t sure what it was going to look like. We were hoping for between that 6-8 weeks: I got back within five and played a game in the VFL before being emergency last week.

“For me to be in rehab with some other boys, I came out pretty positively. Hopefully I can stay fit and healthy for a bit longer!”

It wasn’t that long ago when Hollands would’ve been in the stands himself cheering on his Carlton heroes of years gone by, just as there were plenty of Junior ‘Baggers in attendance at Marvel Stadium.

Of the 34,954 strong crowd under the roof, there were more than a fair share of young Blues revelling in every moment . . . particularly when the ball went in Charlie Curnow’s vicinity.

Hollands himself admitted to enjoying the Curnow show.

“Absolutely, it was hard not to! Every time the ball went inside 50 and hearing the roar, it was pretty special.

“It was nice to get one to him! To hit him on his chest, it was a good lead from him . . . it was a great game for Charlie.”

There’s a fair bit of modesty in that from Hollands, whose left-footed pass after a mazy run in traffic drew the instant praise from the commentary team.

“Let’s not undersell how good this was from young Hollands” came the call from Nick Dal Santo. He works his way through three, firstly has the awareness and vision to see your key forward leading, and then to have the capability to hit it on your opposite foot . . . you’d love to lead to that.”

Brownlow Medallist Gerard Healy agreed: “that young fellow was superb”.

It’s probably no surprise that the humble Hollands didn’t give more in his response — particularly given the effort he put in during the game.

With the Blues three players down in the second half, reduced rotations meant increased workload: Hollands, Matthew Cottrell and Blake Acres were testament to that. Barely able to leave the ground, all three played over 95 per cent game time (numbers usually reserved for key defenders) while running 17 kilometres for the game.

It was a nice reminder to the rigours of AFL football.

“Wow! I didn’t realise it was that many ks.

“We were a few rotations down, so it just meant that for runners like myself and ‘Costs’, we had to dig in a bit more. To come in as a collective, being a few men down, it was a team effort.”