{"id":786599,"date":"2026-07-08T08:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T08:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/786599\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T08:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T08:54:17","slug":"afl-news-2026-carlton-blues-coaching-race-josh-fraser-unbeaten-run-wildcard-push-isaac-smith-and-nathan-brown-weigh-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/786599\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Carlton Blues coaching race Josh Fraser; unbeaten run wildcard push Isaac Smith and Nathan Brown weigh in"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlton\u2019s<\/a> sharp rise since the departure of coach Michael Voss<\/a> has been staggering, winning seven games in a row under caretaker coach Josh Fraser, including wins against Geelong<\/a>, Western Bulldogs<\/a> and GWS<\/a> in Sydney.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve risen from the bottom four to back in the finals hunt, which has put Fraser firmly in the conversation for the job long term, even though he has consistently stated he does not want the role.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Josh Fraser addresses the Carlton playing group.\u00a0AFL<\/p>\n

However, while it has been all smiles at Princes Park for two months now, things are about to get tougher.<\/p>\n

Back in the hunt for a wildcard spot or even a place in the top eight, the pressure is well and truly back on Carlton to continue performing.<\/p>\n

They have a difficult fixture to close the season, playing Hawthorn<\/a>, Collingwood<\/a>, Gold Coast<\/a>, Brisbane<\/a>, St Kilda<\/a>, Bulldogs and Fremantle<\/a> from here.<\/p>\n

The Hawks, Lions and Dockers are genuine premiership contenders, while the Pies, Suns, Saints and Dogs will all be fighting for their own spot inside the top 10.<\/p>\n

Hawthorn great Isaac Smith believes the Blues\u2019 bubble may be about to pop, predicting them to only win two of their final seven games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they play the way they played against Richmond, I reckon they\u2019re all danger games coming up,\u201d Smith told Nine\u2019s Footy Classified.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say they win two of their last seven games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand why Josh hasn\u2019t put his hand up (for the job). I reckon he\u2019s sat back and analysed the fixture when he first took over \u2026 he didn\u2019t know he was going to win seven in a row, but he would\u2019ve thought \u2018these last seven games are dangerous and I don\u2019t want to put my hand in the race yet, I\u2019m just going to sit back and see how it unfolds\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlton held on to narrowly beat Richmond by two points in an ugly affair in round 17.<\/p>\n

Former Western Bulldogs star Nathan Brown believes Fraser might just become an unbackable favourite for the coaching job if the Blues take down Hawthorn and Collingwood across the next fortnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the storyline of the year. The Blues under Josh Fraser are 7-0 and now they\u2019ve got Hawthorn, Collingwood and then Gold Coast and they don\u2019t leave Victoria for the rest of the season,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard to see how Josh Fraser doesn\u2019t get this role if he beats Hawthorn and Collingwood in the next two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith disagrees however saying pure win-loss results won\u2019t \u201cnecessarily\u201d be the deciding factor for Carlton.<\/p>\n

Essendon<\/a> legend James Hird agrees, saying there are too many other factors when hiring a head coach to just look at win-loss over a small sample size period.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it is a tipping point. I think if you win every game, it probably is, but I don\u2019t think just winning and losing decides whether he gets that job,\u201d Hird said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlton\u2019s sharp rise since the departure of coach Michael Voss has been staggering, winning seven games in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-786599","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\/786599","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=786599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}