THE BEGINNING of a beautiful friendship.

When Lachie Cowan and Ollie Hollands joined their boyhood club in 2022, they were relative strangers who had just been united by Navy Blue. Two years on, the two relative youngsters have formed a relationship which continues to go from strength to strength.

Cowan concedes that he didn’t talk all that much in his opening year in the system, but the more time he has spent getting comfortable, the more he has opened up.

That has also coincided with a burgeoning friendship with Hollands, with the duo debuting alongside each other in front of over 88,000 people back in Round 1 of 2023.

Speaking to Carlton Media upon the conclusion of the season, the pairing - who respectively enjoyed solid campaigns - said their relationship was strengthening with the more time they spend as teammates.

“Our relationship has grown over this year especially: I was pretty quiet last year. I got drafted with Ollie, but I didn’t say a hell of a lot,” Cowan said.

“The more opportunity we’ve had to play with each other, being part of a massive football club, you grow those relationships both on and off the field,” Hollands added.

“Getting the opportunity to move back with ‘Cow’, he helped me settle in really easily.”

The duo arrived at IKON Park as part of a youthful intake at the end of the 2022 campaign, joining Jaxon Binns and Harry Lemmey as fellow members of their draft class before ruckman Hudson O’Keeffe joined as a supplemental selection period signing not long after.

In Hollands’ eyes, the chance to grow alongside one another and play as teammates at the highest level - which he managed to do with Cowan and then Binns in the final rounds of the home-and-away season - has provided even greater motivation.

He only has to look at those at the Club from the 2015 draft class to see what that means.

“We look at some of these boys in the draft years before us - like Harry and Charlie in that draft year - who have had football over the last few years where they’ve been able to play together. For us, that’s a real strong motivator and another reason why you want to play footy.

“The back end of the year, we got to have a few more young faces out there, where in a way we were the mature heads out there. It felt a bit weird, but it was really enjoyable.

“Having the opportunity to play with ‘Binnsy’, plus a couple of other boys like ‘Huddo’ and ‘Lem’ who aren’t far away which is exciting.”

For Cowan, the opportunity to play AFL football alongside Binns - who has been one of his closest mates since their arrivals at IKON Park - has whet the appetite for hopefully more to come.

“He played two really good games and found he was up to the level.

“He’s worked so hard last year in the VFL and had another great year this year. He’s been biding his time, got his opportunity and grabbed it with both hands.”