{"id":52483,"date":"2025-08-08T08:40:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T08:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/52483\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T08:40:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T08:40:30","slug":"afl-hollow-joy-voss-speaks-on-carlton-job-assurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/52483\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL: ‘Hollow joy’ – Voss speaks on Carlton job assurance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Voss has described being given assurance he will coach Carlton next year as “hollow joy”.<\/p>\n

After a horror season that placed pressure on his job, the Blues have unanimously backed him to lead into the final season of his contract.<\/p>\n

A day after a strong statement from Carlton’s board, declaring Voss would coach in 2026, he thanked the club and its fans for the support.<\/p>\n

Michael Voss, Senior Coach of the Blues walks off the field after quarter time during the round 20.\u00a0Photo by Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

“It feels a little bit of hollow joy, in some ways,” he said at Ikon Park on Friday.<\/p>\n

“There’s no contentment in how we’ve found ourselves here.<\/p>\n

“There’s also gratitude and a privilege to be able to continue to lead this football club.<\/p>\n

“To be able to attack, not just these last three weeks, but what next season looks like.”<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Graham Wright, who will officially take over as Carlton chief executive from Brian Cook next week, recommended Voss stay on as coach.<\/p>\n

The Blues board unanimously endorsed the former Hawthorn and Collingwood football boss’s view.<\/p>\n

Wright and Voss have been meeting regularly over recent months to discuss how Carlton bounce back in 2026.<\/p>\n

The board met for five hours on Wednesday, with Voss driving out of the headquarters halfway through to a waiting media pack.<\/p>\n

“It was like The Truman Show (1998 film) there at one stage,” Voss said.<\/p>\n

“Man has coffee. Man drives out of Ikon Park. Man turns up training. Man goes to board meeting.<\/p>\n

“That was a bit strange, and that did probably elevate it a bit.”<\/p>\n

Although Voss is certain to continue, Wright is expected to make significant change around the senior coach.<\/p>\n

Carlton football boss Brad Lloyd has been in his role since 2018, there for the dismissals of Brendon Bolton in 2019 and David Teague in 2021.<\/p>\n

There was no mention of Lloyd, or any of Carlton’s assistant or development coaches in the statement released by the club on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“It hasn’t been a discussion to this point in time,” Voss said when asked if he expected changes.<\/p>\n

“There might be discussions around what other people are talking about in that space, but it’s not our discussions.<\/p>\n

“We anticipate that once we have the right time and some breathing room we’ll start to think about it a bit more, but it’s not now.”<\/p>\n

Ahead of a clash with finals-bound Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night, the Blues sit 13th with a 7-13 record after beginning the season with premiership aspirations.<\/p>\n

“The biggest thing for us right now is to move forward,” Voss said.<\/p>\n

“It’s not so much about the change for us, it’s about where we progress.<\/p>\n

“There is still plenty to get out of the season, it might not be the outcome we’re all after, but there’s still things to get out of it.”<\/p>\n

Voss remained “very confident” off-contract defender Jack Silvagni would remain at the club next season.<\/p>\n

The third-generation Blue has met with fierce rivals Collingwood and Essendon, as well as the Western Bulldogs, about a potential move.<\/p>\n

“He’s in a position where he gets to explore what the next phase looks like for him,” Voss said of Silvagni.<\/p>\n

“It’s what free agency has done.”<\/p>\n

Tom De Koning, who is weighing up a monster offer to join St Kilda, is back as the Blues’ first-choice ruckman after Carlton dropped Marc Pittonet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Voss has described being given assurance he will coach Carlton next year as “hollow joy”. After a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-52483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}