Resigned Carlton coach Michael Voss sensed “the inevitable was starting to become clearer” after a meeting with club executives.
Voss met with his manager last week in Brisbane and made the decision to resign before coaching the club for one last time.
The former champion player left an earlier dinner with Graham Wright (CEO) and Rob Priestley (president) feeling he needed to “elevate” discussions about his future.
“I think your read in these situations is often what they don’t say, not what they do say,” Voss told AFL.com.au in part.
“I read enough into what they didn’t say, it was on shaky ground and the inevitable was starting to become clearer.
“But the fighter in you and competitor in you wants to take it as far as you can.
“I think during the week last week was the first time I sort of sat with a result the week before and thought about where the group was it, where the club currently was and where they needed to go.
“Thinking about that more deeply, reflecting on that I felt like it was time to elevate those conversations.”
Voss said he wanted to have made the decision before coaching against Brisbane to avoid the risk of acting on emotion.
“I’d just been feeling, particularly the last week, that it was time,” he said.
“Why that conversation was important was because I didn’t want the result, whether we got the result done or we didn’t get the result done, to be the emotional or acute response to change my mind.
“Maybe if you won under those circumstances, and it’s all hypothetical right, you sort of think, ‘I’ve been swept up in that emotion and maybe I hang a little bit longer’.
“But I didn’t want the game to do that, if I was feeling that, which was the first time I felt that, I was getting to a point where a decision had to be made.
“I talked to Chris Davies soon afterwards and the wheels got put in motion.”
Voss spoke to AFL.com.au instead of facing the media alongside Wright, Priestley and Dawes on Tuesday.
He being “at peace” with the decision hadn’t made telling the playing group any easier.
“I had a few days to think about it and then you get the final pieces of the puzzle but there’s one thing knowing it and another saying it,” he said.
“Today you obviously get to say it.”
Originally published as Michael Voss breaks silence after immediate resignation as Carlton coach