The heat is understandably on Michael Voss as Carlton continue to disappoint beyond the halfway point of a season the club – including its under-fire coach – promised plenty.
It has so far been nothing like the “really exciting” year that Voss predicted to thousands of Blues diehards at Ikon Park on the Sunday before round one, when they coughed up a 41-point lead to lose to Richmond.
Lachie Fogarty and Zac Williams in action for the Blues.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Saturday’s 11-point loss to third-from-bottom North Melbourne was every bit as bad. That’s where we’ll start with the key takeouts from round 15.
Battlers, recycled players and reclamation projects
North Melbourne defeated Carlton by 11 at the MCG, Saturday
The Blues conceded eight consecutive goals either side of half-time, to leave Carlton 10th with a 6-8 win-loss record.
As things stand, Voss has nine games left to avoid his first losing season in charge of the Blues, who have not missed finals since 2022. It would be a galling result after outgoing chief executive Brian Cook said optimistically in March that Carlton wanted to finish inside the top four.
The Blues regressed from an unlikely preliminary final run in 2023 to a first-week finals exit last year, and now only another second-half revival will spare them further blushes.
Voss is contracted until the end of next season, but Cook’s impending replacement Graham Wright won’t be afraid to cut him loose a year early if he doesn’t think he is the right man for the job.
However, another area is not receiving the same scrutiny. There is a major obsession with their headline acts but less focus on how much they rely on battlers, recycled players and reclamation projects.
Players from other clubs in Saturday’s side were Adam Cerra, Adam Saad, George Hewett, Blake Acres, Mitch McGovern, Zac Williams, Sam Docherty, Marc Pittonet, Nick Haynes, Orazio Fantasia and Lachie Fogarty. Carlton invested a lot of draft capital in that bunch.
Ex-Bulldog Lewis Young (eight games), former Sun Elijah Hollands (five) and journeyman Francis Evans (four) – delisted after brief stints at Geelong and Port Adelaide – have also appeared semi-regularly this season.
Nic Newman has not played in 2025 due to injury, but has been a success since crossing from Sydney.
Fogarty and Fantasia are part of the Blues’ ongoing search for an impactful small forward that previously included a second helping of Eddie Betts and now counts Jesse Motlop, Corey Durdin, Evans, the overpaid Williams and pre-season signing Will White. They traded Matt Owies to West Coast last year.
It is also unclear what 188-centimetre forward Ashton Moir will become. Some recruiters across the league would not have drafted Moir at all but the Blues used a top-30 pick on him.
National recruiting manager Mick Agresta has been at Carlton since the start of 2018, firstly as list manager under Stephen Silvagni before moving into his current role when Nick Austin replaced Silvagni two years later.
Agresta’s job description included player acquisition and list management when he worked for Silvagni, but the Blues’ draft selections since he became recruiting manager from 2020 make for underwhelming reading.
His national draft picks since then are Durdin (pick 37), Matt Carroll (41), Motlop (27), Ollie Hollands (11), Lachie Cowan (30), Jaxon Binns (32), Harry Lemmey (47), Moir (29), Billy Wilson (34), Jagga Smith (3), Harry O’Farrell (40), Ben Camporeale (43) and Lucas Camporeale (54).
The disclaimer is Agresta had just one top-10 pick as a result of trades for more established players, and only three first-round selections. Injuries have not helped, but this is largely a pedestrian group.
It is the age-old question: is the recruiting, development or both to blame?
Carlton chased specific skill sets (small forwards, speed, endurance and undervalued key-position players) and the return has mostly been modest. Smith should be a star once he is fit again, but many of the others are flawed or have limited upside.
Only Durdin, Motlop, Hollands and Cowan have played at least 10 AFL matches. To be fair, talls Lemmey and O’Farrell are both showing enough promise in the VFL to suggest they have a future at the higher level.
Speaking on 3AW, Richmond champion Matthew Richardson encouraged the Blues to trade one of their big guns – nominating Harry McKay as the most likely – if they can score multiple early draft picks in return.
Richardson’s comment comes at a time Carlton are still uncertain whether they will retain ruckman De Koning from St Kilda’s outrageous $12 million, long-term contract offer. At worst, they will get band-one compensation if the restricted free agent leaves, but that will be cold comfort.
The last nine rounds of the year will be fascinating viewing from a Blues perspective, but the off-season potentially even more so.
Were the free kicks to Daicos there?
Collingwood defeated St Kilda by 34 points at Marvel Stadium, Saturday night
If St Kilda are not complaining about the northern academies, they are unhappy about Marcus Windhager not being able to get away with roughing up Nick Daicos.
Windhager is Ross Lyon’s resident tagger – his modern-day Clint Jones and Ryan Crowley – and adopts many of the same tactics that have enabled him to take plenty of scalps across his four seasons in the AFL. Daicos was Windhager’s assignment on Saturday night, and it was immediately obvious how he was going to approach it.
The battle between Marcus Windhager and Nick Daicos was must-watch viewing all night.Credit: AFL Photos
Yet, Lyon cried foul post-match, suggesting the umpires were too harsh on his defensive stopper.
“We’ll probably go [look at the] early [stages, and] look at a couple of those free kicks,” Lyon said post-match.
“I’m not sure they were free kicks, but I think we’ll take that in and ask the question [to the AFL]. Are there two sets of rules going around? I’m not sure. Am I allowed to say that? I think he’s a great player.”
There were only seven seconds off the clock when Daicos received his first of four free kicks after Windhager’s open-handed jab into the star Magpie’s lower chest.
That was the only somewhat questionable one for anyone not associated with the Saints, but match review officer Michael Christian thought it was forceful enough to hand Windhager a $1000 fine with an early guilty plea.
Daicos’ next free kick came after a Windhager handball turnover, after which St Kilda’s Darcy Wilson lunged at, and collared, the Pie as he charged forward.
His third free kick came at a stoppage early in the second term. Daicos tried to run towards the ball, but Windhager had both arms wrapped around him to hold him back and was called for high contact.
Daicos’ only other free kick came via an excellent tackle that won him a holding-the-ball decision.
Windhager spent the night harassing him – as taggers do – but Fox Footy’s David King believed some of his tactics were “outside the code”, in particular knees to Daicos’ hamstrings. He tapped Daicos to the face on another occasion and was constantly holding.
Collingwood were unimpressed, and Jack Crisp warned anyone who plans to tag Daicos can expect physical attention themselves. Don’t expect the same sympathy, Ross, for your poor, old tagger.
Game of the round
GWS defeated Gold Coast by 7 points at Engie Stadium, Sunday.
It may not have attracted the same eyeballs as other games this past weekend, but Greater Western Sydney’s comeback victory over fellow expansion club Gold Coast was easily the best of the lot.
Jake Stringer celebrates a goal for the Giants against the Suns on Sunday.Credit: via Getty Images
The contest had everything: brilliant individual performances, 30 goals between them, spectacular highlights, and a thrilling comeback where the Giants doubled their goal tally from three-quarter-time to claim a crucial seven-point home win.
The Age’s Michael Gleeson revealed mid-match that Matt Rowell was staying a Sun, on a day Rowell combined with Noah Anderson and Touk Miller to amass an extraordinary 113 disposals.
Damien Hardwick and Gold Coast had numerous other reasons to be optimistic in defeat, too, including forward-midfield bull Bailey Humphrey, who added to his breakout season with 23 disposals, 12 contested possessions and two goals.
The second of them – a brilliant high left-foot snap – kept the Suns alive in the last quarter. Humphrey is tough, powerful and skilful, and looks set to be the club’s next star.
They slipped outside the top eight after this loss, so they have a massive two months ahead to end their finals drought.
