PRIOR to arriving at Carlton, the biggest crowd Elijah Hollands had played in front of was 35,777. He’d never played an AFL game at the MCG before.

After just a handful of games in the Navy Blue, that’s all changed.

His first game was a sell-out at Marvel Stadium on Good Friday, and then his first helping of the home of football saw over 87,000 in the house.

Just six days later, expect a figure around that mark again when the two old enemies clash for the 29th Peter Mac Cup.

As Hollands put it, when he swapped the Suns for the Blues at the end of last year, “it’s definitely a big draw”.

“I was watching Ollie last year, and his first game was in front of [88,000] last season. You sit back and watch and think ‘that’d be cool to be part of’ yourself,” Hollands said.

“These big crowds are awesome. I got my first taste of it last Saturday against Geelong, it was my first AFL game at the ‘G and I loved it. We get another chance against Collingwood tomorrow in front of 90,000, it’s exciting.

“You feel privileged to be able to have the fanbase behind us that we do.”

Hollands well and truly held his own against outstanding opposition last week, adding two classy goals to his 18 disposals in the high-scoring defeat to the Cats.

He’s hopeful that his upward personal trajectory can continue in his life as a Carlton player, and it’s a feeling he can well and truly get used to — with a first MCG win preferably on the cards much sooner rather than later.

“It’s special, it’s cool, it makes me excited. [The MCG] felt different to anywhere else where you can play.

“It’s just immense, it’s loud, I haven’t heard a crowd that loud before — it’s louder than I even imagined.

“For the rest of the boys, it’s normalised for them, it’s normalising for me now. Hopefully this week we can be on the other side of the ledger with a home game against Collingwood and we can get up.”