Carlton coach Michael Voss has conceded the Blues should be further advanced under his leadership after a shock loss to North Melbourne that put his club’s season on the brink of no return and left him fighting to save his job.
The 11-point loss on Saturday, 13.6 (84) to 10.13 (73), has placed Voss’ future firmly on the agenda and leaves the Blues needing to win seven of their remaining nine games to qualify for the finals – a difficult ask given they face flag favourites Collingwood, reigning premiers the Brisbane Lions, and three other teams who started this round in the eight in the run home.
A dejected Patrick Cripps leads the Blues off the ground after their nightmare showing at the MCG.Credit: Getty Images
Frustrated Blues fans voted with their feet, leaving in droves in the second half, while those who remained booed the team at three-quarter-time and as they trudged off the field after a belated but unsuccessful charge in the final quarter.
Blues president Robert Priestley, vice president Patty Kinnersly, chief executive Brian Cook, incoming CEO Graham Wright and football director and club great Greg Williams were all in the rooms digesting a result that threatens to have dire repercussions for the football department, and on free agent Tom De Koning’s decision on his playing future.
Desperate to change a reputation for bloodletting, the new Blues have preached a “stronger together” mantra, but that will be tested at the end of the season.
Wright, who has all but taken the reins from Cook, will be the man who makes the call at the end of the season on whether Voss will coach out the final year of his contract.
Known as an agent of change, Wright is not afraid of making the hard calls. He was the football manager at Collingwood when the Magpies traded Brodie Grundy and Adam Treloar to ease the squeeze on their salary cap.
Ominously for Voss, Wright was also on the Magpies coaching committee that overlooked him in favour of Craig McRae, who beat future senior coaches Adem Yze and Adam Kingsley for the job at the end of 2021.
Wright has the option of making sweeping changes to Voss’ coaching panel, but the heat is now on the coach.
Under pressure two years ago amid a horror six-game losing streak, Voss survived with the backing of Cook and then-president Luke Sayers to lead the Blues to their first preliminary final since 2000. Sayers has already left and Cook will be out at the end of the year.
“There is something about leaving a club in trauma… they’ve left the Blues in trauma today,” North Melbourne great David King said on Fox Footy after the game. “When you are a fourth-year coach, you’ve got to be better than this at this point in the season.
Something to smile about: North stars Harry Sheezel and Jy Simpkin.Credit: AFL Photos
“I think the heat is right on the coach, and I think the supporter base will join in.”
Asked if he was coaching for his job in the remaining nine games of this season, Voss said he was looking no further ahead than Thursday night’s game against Port Adelaide as the Blues aim to salvage a season that has been troubled since round one.
“I think it’s more about staying present and where we’re at,” Voss said.
“We’ve got five days where we’re turning into Port Adelaide.
“The competitor in me is about getting better tomorrow. We absorb, be disappointed, and then you turn into tomorrow, look at what you need to get better at, [and] then you get after the next opponent. That’s all you ever do as a competitor, and that’s what we do.”
Under Voss, now in his fourth season at Princes Park, the star-studded Blues have been hostage to wild fluctuations in form, often in-game, and lack the consistency to challenge for a drought-breaking premiership.
“I’d like us, in terms of the way that we play, to be further ahead than where we are, and [have] the consistency in how we need to be able to play,” Voss said. “That’s what I’d like us to be able to do. It’s not so much about the result of the game, [but] certainly how we play and how long we play it for.”
The strain told on Voss – who was furious at three-quarter time, delivering an expletive-laden spray at his players after they had been “bullied” to be behind by 46 points. The Blues have now lost to teams ranked 16th and 17th on the ladder.
The damage was done in the middle two quarters when a rampant North outscored the bumbling Blues by 12 goals to three, giving them to cushion to absorb a scoreless final quarter.
Voss’ team, which is built on contest and clearance, was beaten by 15 for contested possessions, while their defence crumbled under North’s onslaught.
There are more promising signs with every passing game for Alastair Clarkson and his Kangaroos.Credit: AFL Photos
“Today North Melbourne were too good, much too good around the contest for us,” Voss said. “Across the game, I felt like they, for the middle patch, bullied us. That’s something we’re going to have to look at pretty closely.
“[I’m] disappointed in the whole team. That’s not acceptable, the way we played in that period of time. I felt like there were some fundamental things that we want to value that we didn’t get right. It just didn’t sit at the mids.
“The game starts and finishes there. I felt like we just weren’t sticking to what we want to value under pressure. That’s something we’ll go look at and review very heavily.”
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