Brisbane midfielder Cam Ellis-Yolmen has followed in the footsteps of former Carlton defender Liam Jones and retired in late January rather than comply with the AFL's COVID vaccination mandate. He would not elaborate or comment on his reasoning, but teammate Mitch Robinson did speak about Ellis-Yolmen's decision. Brisbane veteran Mitch Robinson has given his insight into Cam Ellis-Yolmen’s decision to retire. Robinson praised the club for their handling of the situation and expressed how tough the weeks leading up to the announcement had been for his teammate, “I think most of the players understand who is and who isn’t getting vaccinated, and Cam wasn’t hiding that fact, we knew his situation throughout the whole process,” Robinson told his Rip Through It podcast.
Robinson also did not go into any detail about Ellis-Yolmen's vaccination reluctance but did say, “When we found out you had to be vaccinated to play and Liam Jones was the first to come out and retire pretty much A lot of other players have been sucking and seeing what happens and I’ve known for a long time Ellis-Yolmen’s situation with it. I’m not going to get personally into why he hasn’t got the vaccination because that’s not my place to say ... Knowing his situation and what he’s been going through since (it was made compulsory) and I’ve got a lot of sympathy for him."
The Friday prior to his announcement, the club had scheduled a meeting, “He rang me just before the meeting. Apparently, the club has been really good with this stuff ... (GM) Danny Daly and our welfare manager have been in close contact with him the whole time, making sure he has all the help and support he needs. He chose not to speak to the group ... He gave his close friends a call at the club ... He just let me know, he wasn’t at the training session ... so I just kind of knew, he was like ‘I’m going to retire and step away from football for a while and just sort everything out’ and it was a pretty emotional conversation to have to be honest ... we fully support his decision and we’ll always be there for him regardless of what happens. He was actually meant to come around and get a haircut today … that’s how much we really love Curly; he’s been a big part of our club for the last few years and it’s sad to see him go ...".
Ellis-Yolmen began with Adelaide in 2014 and played 39 games before joining Brisbane as s free agent at the end of 2019. He played a further 9 games for the Lions.
Source: sen.com.au, AFL Record Season Guide
Article last changed on Monday, January 31, 2022 - 1:32 PM EST
