{"id":665227,"date":"2026-05-12T03:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T03:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665227\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T03:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T03:56:17","slug":"carlton-powerbroker-bruce-mathieson-calls-for-more-change-at-blues-football-department-after-michael-voss-quits-afl-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665227\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlton powerbroker Bruce Mathieson calls for more change at Blues football department after Michael Voss quits AFL team"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Carlton powerbroker Bruce Mathieson says the decision to part ways with Michael Voss was the right call, and is the start of a football department and player purge the club needs if it is to emerge as an on-field power.<\/p>\n

The departure of the 50-year-old coach was confirmed on Tuesday after just the one win in nine games this season, ending what had largely been a bruising tenure since taking charge in 2022.<\/p>\n

In the past year, banker Robert Priestley replaced Luke Sayers as club president after a lewd-photo scandal, veteran administrator Graham Wright replaced Brian Cook as chief executive, while Chris Davies was brought in as the new football department boss.<\/p>\n

With Voss now gone, Mathieson, the pokies king who has seen nine senior coaches (including interim coaches) depart the club this century, said more overhaul was needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did the right thing, 100 per cent, but it\u2019s not just him [Voss], there is a lot that has got to go, a lot of changes. Unless they do a clean sweep and fix things up, nothing will change,\u201d Mathieson said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Michael<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHave a look at the recruiting, will you? Tell me, other than the young bloke [Jagga Smith], if you can\u2019t pick in the first five and get a reasonable player, what else have we ever picked?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just terrible, absolutely terrible. You have got to look at the head first \u2013 it always stinks at the head first. Our football department is just a disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

National recruiting manager Michael Agresta left the club in February after an eight-year tenure. Mathieson said this role was the most important at the club. Nick Austin is the head of list management.<\/p>\n

Mathieson backed Wright and Davies to make the right changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at anything. How are we going to improve? You look at Collingwood. Does [Scott] Pendlebury improve? Do all of our older players improve? The answer is no. You have got to get younger players in who will improve and give you a chance,\u201d Mathieson said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are all great players, I am not canning them. But if you have a horse running against Winx, you not only want to catch her, you want to pass her \u2013 that\u2019s when you win.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at Brisbane. They had [several] players in their premiership side under 23. Name one good top player at Carlton who is 23 or younger. [Smith] is one \u2026 but there is a long way to go yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mathieson said the Blues needed to consider any rival offers for club leaders Patrick Cripps and Jacob Weitering, while Harry McKay, Adam Saad and Zac Williams should be moved on.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have got [Zac] Williams, you have got [Adam] Saad, these sort of blokes are on big money. Do you reckon they are ever going to improve? It\u2019s just bad business,\u201d Mathieson said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHarry McKay has played one good game [against Brisbane on Friday night]. They all think he is a miracle man. That\u2019s the first good game he has played in about two years. Just can\u2019t have that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I believe he should have been a ruckman all the time. I don\u2019t think Harry McKay can read the game at full-forward. We aren\u2019t great deliverers of the ball, that would help a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet him around the ground, he can run his arse off because he can mark around the ground, he is good below [his knees], he has a lot of skill, let him build, if you are going to keep him at all. I would sell him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Club great Anthony Koutoufides said Carlton had the playing list to have done better under Voss, who had rebuilt his coaching career after a failed stint with Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\"DepartingDeparting Blues coach Michael Voss.AFL Photos<\/p>\n

\u201cVossy \u2013 he has been terrific at the club and what a wonderful man. I adore him, as a lot of people do. He got to the prelim\u2019 final and had the toughest task to beat Brisbane up there. He did a great job Vossy,\u201d Koutoufides told SEN.<\/p>\n

Voss was at the helm for 103 matches, finishing with a 47.5 per cent winning record, and took the Blues into the 2023 preliminary final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we had the talent there. At the end of last season, we lost three key players for us [Charlie Curnow, Jack Silvagni and Tom de Koning]. So, this year is a different line-up, but I think in those few years we had the players they just couldn\u2019t get it over the line. A few years ago, maybe 2024, they looked like they might go on to win,\u201d Koutoufides said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Gold<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt fell away so quickly, as fast as it came, it disappeared so fast. They had the list but \u2026 it takes so much more than good players.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Parkin, the three-time Blues premiership coach, was on the selection panel which handed Voss the job.<\/p>\n

Parkin said he was \u201creally confident\u201d at the time Voss, a Carlton supporter as a child, was the right man for the job. But, as the years unfolded, Parkin said there was a view Voss\u2019 \u201ctechnical and tactical knowledge\u201d became an issue.<\/p>\n

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\"JonJon Pierik<\/a> is a sports journalist at The Age. He covers AFL and has won awards for his cricket and basketball writing.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-665227","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\/665227","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=665227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}