‘People will make it about your job’: Voss’ emphatic response on coaching future after epic Blues fightback

Carlton coach Michael Voss isn’t concerned about the possibility of being sacked after the Blues slumped to their eighth defeat in nine games despite a gallant second-half display against premiers Brisbane at the Gabba on Friday night.

Seemingly on the way to copping another thrashing when trailing by more than eight goals early in third-quarter, Carlton dominated the rest of the contest to only lose 14.16 (100) to 13.11 (89).

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While happy with his team’s fightback, Voss was ultimately left disappointed following yet another loss.

“It highlights the capacity that’s in the group, but it’s also a familiar narrative in that the game asks you to play for longer,“ Voss said.

“We’re playing against the reigning premiers. They’re a very good football team. They tried to take the game away early from us, and obviously, did a great job of doing that.

“I asked for a response quite forcefully at half-time, and to the boys credit, they came out fighting .. and we fought, which was pleasing.

“Whether we were a chance to win or not, that’s really hard to say ... (but) we walk out of the game and get further clarity on what we need to keep producing, but we sort of walk away disappointed.”

When asked about his coaching future and whether such a performance should convince Blues officials to back him, Voss said he didn’t “coach for his job”.

“I coach for building a culture, and hopefully by the time, by the time I leave here, we’ve got winning behaviours, and understand clearly what that looks like,“ he said.

“We clearly understand what that looks like when we meet them, and we clearly understand what that looks like when we don’t, and I coach to to create an environment that enables that to happen.

“Often people will make it about your job, but the reality is, I’ll make it about something else, and that’s what we’ve got to continue to reinforce within our own environment.“

The Blues meet the Western Bulldogs next Saturday night at Marvel Stadium, with Voss urging his team to build on its second-half Gabba display.

“It shows you that we have the capacity to be able to finish off games really strongly,” said Voss after his side flipped the script by producing a good second-half display.

“Maybe the difference was we were chasing, so we could go for it a bit, and we have to obviously replicate that same mindset next week if we find ourselves in a different position,“ he said.

“We let ourselves down the first half. It just didn’t feel like our hunt for the ball was on. We gave up way too many uncontested marks, couldn’t get any pressure on

the game. We gave them the style of football that we know that when they play well, you’re next to no chance of winning.

“And then in our front half, we couldn’t find our connections, and that completely flipped in the second half.

“There is a model in there that definitely works, and those sorts of results do say so, but it also says that we’re not doing it for long enough, so that is just something we’re going to have to continually work on.”

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