{"id":291677,"date":"2023-09-08T02:04:15","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T02:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/?p=291677"},"modified":"2023-09-08T02:04:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T02:04:15","slug":"the-fans-were-baying-for-blood-heres-how-michael-voss-survived-at-carlton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/rugby-league\/the-fans-were-baying-for-blood-heres-how-michael-voss-survived-at-carlton\/","title":{"rendered":"The fans were baying for blood. Here\u2019s how Michael Voss survived at Carlton"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/span>Jake Niall<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Carlton skipper Patrick Cripps and Blues coach Michael Voss.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AFL Photos<\/cite><\/p>\n

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They couldn\u2019t move the ball or kick straight. Their vaunted ferocity at the contest and pressure had dissipated. Accusing fingers \u2013 thousands of them \u2013 were aimed at the triple premiership skipper and resurrected coach who had been hired to lead the frustrated Carlton Football Club to prosperity.<\/p>\n

The Blues kept losing, their record finally flat-lining at four wins from 13 games. But Michael Voss did not deviate from his plan.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Michael Voss and his long and winding AFL coaching journey.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>The Age<\/cite><\/p>\n

He stuck to his own and Carlton\u2019s strengths, when his team looked cooked and hordes of fed-up fans vented \u2013 a billionaire benefactor among the throng \u2013 and many called for another revolution.<\/p>\n

Judging by the talkback tone, they didn\u2019t want a velvet version, either.<\/p>\n

What did Voss, poster boy for the second-chance coach, do to right the ship in his tumultuous second season?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he did a lot. He stuck to his guns,\u201d said Carlton chief executive Brian Cook of Voss\u2019 response to the mid-season crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe showed stability and he showed real solidarity. He had a plan and he stuck to it. And it was around contest and defence, and he said that all along and, you know, it\u2019s worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voss\u2019 response was founded on the area that he had prioritised in his second stint as a senior coach, on what was his more natural terrain than the Xs and Os of game style and tactics \u2013 leadership and relationships.<\/p>\n

It is symbolic of Voss\u2019 coaching that he has spent this season on the boundary prioritising feedback to players rather than in the box upstairs, where his tactically adroit senior assistant Ash Hansen is delegated with much of the game-day manoeuvring.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Carlton\u2019s senior assistant coach Ashley Hansen gives directions to Harry McKay.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n

In Brisbane, the revered Voss foundered on the rocks of micromanagement and insufficient support at the club he skippered as player. At Carlton, after learning delegation from Ken Hinkley at Port Adelaide, he would trust those at his side and underneath, such as Hansen and his line coaches.<\/p>\n

It was leadership, not tactical acumen, that had won Voss his second crack at senior coaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not afraid to delegate, he\u2019s not afraid to have an honest conversation with anyone,\u201d Cook said of Voss, whose conversations with the club\u2019s on-field leaders were hard ones.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s arguable that Voss was brave in challenging the on-field leaders, when there is natural temptation to cuddle those whom you need to keep on side.<\/p>\n

Cook and president Luke Sayers had been bluntly told that the issue was not with the coach. Jacob Weitering, the team\u2019s premier tall defender, carried that message to the president after the Blues, sapped of confidence and seemingly playing with anxiety, went down to Friday night\u2019s opponent, Sydney, at the SCG, in round 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a simple conversation with Luke,\u201d Weitering recalled in an interview with this masthead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018It\u2019s a player\u2019s problem at the moment. We need to get ourselves sorted. Vossy\u2019s doing everything he can\u2019 and the coaches were at the time as well. We just had to implement what we were being coached.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Carlton\u2019s Jacob Weitering.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n

That same message \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s not the coach\u201d \u2013 was conveyed to Cook and the club\u2019s board.<\/p>\n

Sayers had gone on record saying that Voss would coach in 2024, as contracted, regardless of whether the club met the bar of making finals \u2013 a comment the president first made after the Collingwood game in round 10, which Weitering reckoned was their nadir (they would lose three more consecutively before the turnaround).<\/p>\n

This unequivocal backing of Voss was reiterated by CEO Cook and president Sayers in more expansive radio interviews on the day of the Essendon game \u2013 an embarrassing 34-point defeat.<\/p>\n

The Blues had planned to make a public show of support for Voss on that day, clearly mindful of the sound and fury surrounding them, including the public comments by billionaire gaming magnate and benefactor Bruce Mathieson, who had criticised the board\u2019s and also Cook\u2019s leadership, in an interview with News Corp. His nephew Craig, who had served on the board since 2012, would resign after the Sydney loss.<\/p>\n

Within the club, there were concerns from some football staff and players that Voss would become yet another Carlton coaching casualty. This view ran contrary to the board and CEO\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Michael Voss in June this year.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n

The internal fears that Voss could be moved on before his contract was up (end of 2024) were largely founded upon Carlton\u2019s recent cycle of sacking coaches, since Brett Ratten (2012), Mick Malthouse (mid-2015), Brendon Bolton (mid-2019) and David Teague (end of 2021) had been terminated before their contracts were completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Collingwood game was a turning point of we were understanding we weren\u2019t where we wanted to be,\u201d Weitering said. \u201cSydney felt like we made some changes but didn\u2019t get the result.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Essendon [round 13] was a real gut punch, because of the occasion. Essendon, [we] probably needed to win. It was very reminiscent of Brendon Bolton, sort of that period of time, we lost to Essendon and he was moved on and everything was, you know, shook up again.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is evident from talking to Weitering, Cook and others within the club not authorised to speak publicly and who talked off the record, is that the club hierarchy\u2019s public affirmation that Voss was safe was a relief, that some players and staff had experienced one sacking or review too many.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019d been through it before,\u201d said Cook of the players and staff who\u2019d endured coaching\/CEO turnover. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want to go through it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weitering said: \u201cI think if you\u2019re going to do that [sack the coach] … you\u2019re probably saying to the club, to the supporters, to the players that you\u2019re taking one step forward and two steps back, or three steps back even, and that\u2019s not great if you want success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook said he and Sayers had underestimated the impact on the players of their public statements supporting Voss staying in his role. Sayers, subsequently engulfed in separate controversy due to his past stewardship of PwC, has said little since that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that was said to us, to Luke and I, to the board, I think we were a little surprised,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably didn\u2019t fully comprehend how important it was how the players saw the commentary from Luke and I in particular, in the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought they were a bit more protected than that. There was obviously some susceptibility there, some sensitivity, OK, and we didn\u2019t pick up on [it].\u201d<\/p>\n

Weitering said of the external pressure\u2019s influence: \u201cThe less noise there is the better … I mean, this is a noisy club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weitering credits Cook, Sayers and football boss Brad Lloyd for standing firm in the face of the outside heat. \u201cAnd then Vossy is the obvious one … a leader of men, very good balance between relationships and understanding you\u2019ve got to get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Michael Voss during his time as Brisbane coach.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n

Carlton\u2019s season stands as one of the most unusual, a six-game losing streak followed by nine consecutive victories and a surge to September.<\/p>\n

Yet Cook cannot pinpoint what caused this 180-degree turn. \u201cWe knew what all the stats said … those measurements have turned around completely. But if you said to me what has been the reason they\u2019ve turned around, I couldn\u2019t tell you the reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weitering said there were many reasons for the turnaround \u2013 the players\u2019 campfire conversation at Ed Curnow\u2019s surf coast beach house has been widely cited as important \u2013 but that the Blues had focused on their strengths, contest and defence, instead of trying to be what they were not.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Patrick Cripps celebrates with Michael Voss.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AFL Photos \/ Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n

\u201cLast year our pressure and our contest was very good for the first half of the year and it dropped away. I guess our make-up of the team definitely centre around those things and we just weren\u2019t playing that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe campfire conversation is one that was brought up recently. But Vossy was very strong on our identity and how he wanted us to play, and simply you can\u2019t just have a coach saying it, the leaders need to both say it and drive it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weitering said during the slump the Blues had been poor offensively and average defensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the funny thing is we were working more on the offence than we were the defence, which is our strength. It starts at contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking too much about how we were moving the ball rather than actually defending it. You need your leaders to drive it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook was struck, too, by Voss\u2019 optimism in the face of those continued defeats. \u201cHe was really consistent. He kept on saying the same things … But he was also confident of getting out of it. I\u2019m not sure he ever planned on winning nine in a row after losing five or six in a row. He was always optimistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weitering called Carlton \u201ca slightly impatient club historically\u201d in what strikes as an understatement. As the game\u2019s longest-serving CEO, with five flags to his name at West Coast and Geelong, Cook carried a mandate to cure the Blues of their quick-fixing and provide stability.<\/p>\n

Voss, in Cook\u2019s telling, has imported another trait that is most un-Carlton-like and which the club has adopted an official value in its mission statement: humility.<\/p>\n

Voss\u2019 humility was evident in his football journey. He did not give up on coaching after the failure as an untried and inexperienced coach in Brisbane. He spent seven years in what others might consider exile, retooling and educating himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s brought that value with him. He is the prime example of humility in our footy club,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n

It has never been Voss\u2019 way or the highway at Carlton. It has been about carrying people with him, as Cook has made plain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just glad Vossy went about it the way he did,\u201d Weitering said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think there was any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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