Tyler Holt’s life was changed one day back in 2023.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
After a prolonged recovery from head injury, Cobram’s 2025 Junior Citizen of the Year Tyler Holt is ready to take his beloved sport to the next level.
A stab of white light. Voices drifted in from far away. Someone — could it be his mum? — said his name, over and over. Gentle words reassured him that he would be all right.
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It was April 29, 2023, and the life of Tyler Holt, then in an induced coma after sustaining a severe head injury, was about to change irrevocably.
It all started in a game of football against Tungamah. At one point, Tyler dove for a ground footy. At the same moment, an opposition player, not wanting to slam into Tyler, leaped into the air. But it was too late. The back of the player’s boot clipped Tyler on the side of his head.
Tyler got up from the accidental knock, shook himself off and finished the game.
It wasn’t until later that day that things took a turn for the worse. Around lunchtime, Tyler’s mum, Mel, checked her phone to find a dozen missed calls from her son.
She rushed home as fast as she could to find her son on the edge of consciousness.
After a trip to the Cobram Hospital, where doctors placed Tyler in an induced coma, a helicopter flew Tyler and Mel to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
Doctors discovered a haematoma, a type of internal bleeding caused by ruptured blood vessels, in Tyler’s skull.
The condition is potentially life-threatening.
It was a harrowing ordeal for Mel, who could only stand by and watch.
“[The doctors] said, ‘If we don’t take him to theatre now, we’ll lose him’,” Mel said.
The doctors warned that Tyler could be in coma for months.
But Tyler, much to everyone’s delight, woke himself up not two days later.
After waking up, there was one thing on Tyler’s mind.
“The first things I said to my pop after I came out of the coma, I asked [his Pop], ‘Did the Bulldogs win?’” he said later.
Much to Tyler’s relief, his pop revealed his beloved Western Bulldogs had indeed triumphed over Hawthorn, 94 to 65.
Tyler’s doctors discharged him after four days in early May 2023.
Back home, there were few things Tyler wanted to do as much as lace up his boots.
But his doctors ordered him to take it easy, which meant, at the very least, no footy training for the next three months.
Deflated, Tyler fell into a dark space, Melissa later recalled.
“Seeing him not being able to do anything was very hard,” Mel said.
“Trying to get him to stop, saying, ‘Tyler, you can’t do that’, I felt like we were always picking on him, even though we were trying to help him.”
Tyler made sure to help out his team in just about every other way he could.
He showed up to training, ran water to his mates, and made sure they were looked after.
Finally, three months crept past. Tyler could once more play the sport he loved.
Tyler Holt, 14, is excited about playing in the Strathmerton thirds this year.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
Despite his fourths side narrowly losing to Jerilderie, Tyler managed to score a goal with a drop-punt. It was a highlight of the match — an event that caused a stampede of his teammates to crowd around their returned key half-back.
Tyler was later named vice-captain for the 2024 season, and went on to be named best in finals that year.
For Mel, watching Tyler out on the field provoked a mix of emotions.
“I was very scared,” she said.
“He got injured playing footy, and nearly lost his life. So seeing him out in the field ... every time he went into a tackle, I literally couldn’t watch.”
But on the other hand, she felt relieved knowing that her son was once again doing what he loved.
