Michael Voss discusses Charlie Curnow’s future at Carlton

Michael Voss and Charlie Curnow celebrate Carlton’s win over Sydney in the 2023 elimination final. Picture: AFL Photos

CARLTON won’t entertain rival clubs’ trade offers for key forward Charlie Curnow, coach Michael Voss says.

Curnow looms as the biggest name to watch during the October trade period after telling the Blues at his exit meeting that he would like a fresh start elsewhere.

But Voss on Monday insisted Curnow is “open” to a move rather than demanding one, and the coach is adamant Carlton won’t answer calls from potential suitors.

Curnow, who endured repeated injury setbacks this year, is contracted until the end of 2029 and remains one of the competition’s best forwards when fit.

“Our position is pretty clear … he’ll be at Carlton in 2026,” Voss told SEN radio.

“Those discussions, if there’s any others, we’ll continue to have behind closed doors.

“But as I stated, he’s a two-time Coleman medallist, could’ve been three, he’s got four years to run on a contract.

“We feel like he’s an incredibly important person to us and so he’ll figure for us moving forward. Hopefully he’s playing out the rest of his career here.”

Curnow could become the third star to walk out on Carlton this year, with free agents Tom De Koning and Jack Silvagni headed for the exit.

Voss was quizzed on the 28-year-old spearhead’s reasons for considering a move.

“I don’t think it’s worthy of going into detail outside of we’ve had a tough year and he’s had a challenging year,” Voss said.

“If you look at the year he’s had, we could sort of wash over it pretty quick and just look at what happened towards the end.

“He’s obviously had three surgeries over the course of this year … it’s just been a tough year.

“We’ve all felt that and I’d imagine our players have felt that as well. We’re all pretty determined to change that.”

Voss won’t begrudge De Koning taking up a monster eight-year contract with St Kilda, but conceded it was “a tough one to accept” when players decided to move clubs.

He also confirmed the Blues’ decision to ask contracted player Elijah Hollands to seek a trade was “absolutely” related to off-field concerns.

Elijah Hollands handballs during Carlton’s clash against West Coast in round 23, 2024. Picture: Getty Images

Hollands twice took personal leave this year and ended the season in playing VFL.

“That discussion was ‘it’s up to you to be able to look around and find out if another place suits you’. That’s the discussion we had with him and he’s clear on where we stand on that, so it’s up to him to explore those options and what they look like,” he said.

“Absolutely, we’ve been a little bit disappointed with how it’s transpired across the whole year. He’s been quite an important player to us and over the course of the previous year he had a real influence on the way we played. But the year hasn’t gone the way we wanted.

“The conversation was if there’s another place that is going to get the best out of you, this is the time to go and look for that.”

Voss said the Blues would be as “aggressive as we can be” in the player movement market, with multiple holes to fill on the list.

“Everyone would love to be able to get another goal-kicker and everyone would love to be able to get a little extra ball-carry in your team,” Voss said.

“We’ve got to shore up a couple of other positions.”