{"id":578615,"date":"2026-04-01T13:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/578615\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T13:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:37:11","slug":"from-the-pocket-voss-has-had-every-chance-to-succeed-but-carlton-backed-the-wrong-coach-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/578615\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Pocket: Voss has had every chance to succeed but Carlton backed the wrong coach | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Voss often speaks about standards and habits. Right now, the Carlton coach\u2019s team are habitual dwindlers. It\u2019s on the whiteboard of every opposition coach. It\u2019s in the marrow of every Blues player and supporter. And it goes back a long way. Voss won eight of his first 10 games at Carlton. But of those wins, one was by three points after being 50 points up against Port Adelaide. They won by a point against Hawthorn after leading by seven goals. From then on, every significant loss of his tenure has seen the Blues squander large leads. They were four goals up at the final break before Collingwood \u201cclosed like the Grim Reaper\u201d in 2022. They led by five goals in the first quarter of the 2023 preliminary final<\/a> against Brisbane. They were 39 points ahead in the first quarter of the GWS clash in 2024, a loss the club has never recovered from. They were 41 points up against a bunch of Richmond kids last year. And they surrendered a 43-point lead to Melbourne on Sunday.<\/p>\n

When teams keep losing like this, there is talk of effort, fitness and psychology. One talkback caller this week said they needed an exorcism. But Carlton\u2019s problems are not just above the shoulders. A lot of it comes down to the way they play and the way they\u2019re coached. Despite some tinkering around the edges, the Blues still prioritise a bulldozing brand of football. But playing like that is labour intensive, and difficult to maintain for more than a half. It\u2019s impossible to maintain for months on end. It\u2019s easy to scout and manipulate. And it\u2019s not how good teams are playing in 2026.<\/p>\n

Voss said his main focus this year was on \u201cbringing energy\u201d. But they have brought energy for as long as he\u2019s been coach. Energy is great for a six-goal burst, a 30-minute sugar hit. And Carlton often bring it early in games. You see it in the way they tackle, chase and celebrate goals. It\u2019s reflected in the nebulous \u201cpressure rating\u201d and the more definitive scoreboard.<\/p>\n

Carlton coach Michael Voss leads the Blues off the field after their loss to Melbourne. Photograph: James Ross\/AAP<\/p>\n

But there comes a moment in every game where energy gives way to reality.<\/p>\n

There comes a moment where the opposition coach is furiously flipping magnets and Voss is down on the boundary line with his arms folded \u2013 an observer, not an initiator. There comes a moment that calls for tactical shifts and structural adjustments. And for too long, Carlton have been unable to meet those moments. There was a brief patch on Sunday where the Blues took a deep breath and slowed the tempo against the Demons. They got a goal out of it. And it lasted about 90 seconds.<\/p>\n

When Blues boss Graham Wright stuck with Voss last year, it was a surprise. Wright was renowned for his shrewd and tough calls. He sacked Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley as respectfully as possible. At first, his appointment of Craig McRae seemed like a strange one. Every Magpies coach had been a larger-than-life-figure \u2013 either a champion of the club or a premiership coach elsewhere. McRae didn\u2019t seem like a natural frontman of a large and loud club. How wrong we were.<\/p>\n

Backing in Voss was another way of saying, \u201cThis isn\u2019t the Carlton of Jack Elliott and Wes Lofts.\u201d And that\u2019s great. But Wright was clearly seeing things we weren\u2019t. He was seeing the way Voss coped with stress and his unflinching optimism. We were simply watching them play. A few days later, Carlton went out and lost in precisely the same way they\u2019d been losing all year. \u201cContest and effort is still the primary part of what we need to bring every single week,\u201d Voss said.<\/p>\n

Rohan Connolly wrote a piece this week cautioning against a rash decision<\/a>, especially after the club went to great lengths to put the right structures around the senior coach. And he\u2019s right. Sacking Voss and installing a locum at this point of the season, when we\u2019re a few days on from a Sheffield Shield final, would be madness. But that doesn\u2019t mean the decision to retain him in the first place was the correct one. And it drums home how Voss, more than any football coach I can remember, has been given every possible chance to succeed. In terms of draft picks, media coverage and club support, he couldn\u2019t have asked for more.<\/p>\n

Right now, the people running Carlton have a lot to grapple with. They have a demoralised supporter base. They have a fixture that includes double ups against Brisbane, the Western Bulldogs, Collingwood and Fremantle. They have a team that keeps playing and losing the same way. They have a coach who keeps saying the same things. And they have the growing realisation that their decision to back Voss \u2013 a decision that was data driven, unswayed by public opinion and the antitheses of how Carlton has operated for half a century \u2013 was the wrong one. And that they\u2019ve backed the wrong horse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Voss often speaks about standards and habits. Right now, the Carlton coach\u2019s team are habitual dwindlers. It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-578615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578615","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=578615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}