Undeniable proof Josh Fraser can be Carlton’s next coach... and key insider who has endorsed it

It’s become impossible to ignore Josh Fraser as a leading contender to be Carlton’s next senior coach.

The Blues caretaker has guided the club to a perfect 5-0 run to charge into finals contention in what looks like a totally different team to the one from earlier this season.

That’s not necessarily a knock on Michael Voss either, with the ex-Blues coach constantly acknowledged for setting the club on this current path.

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But the Fraser freight train looks and feels more like a genuinely well-drilled football side, as opposed to an interim coach sugar hit.

Carlton has crucially had the sixth-hardest fixture with the sixth-easiest fixture coming home.

That includes winnable upcoming games against West Coast (Marvel Stadium) on Saturday afternoon and Richmond (MCG) next Saturday night, while Fraser’s Blues don’t leave Melbourne for the remainder of the season. The next seven Carlton games are exclusively live in Victoria on Fox Footy, available on Kayo Sports.

Fraser has said over and over he won’t go for the job permanently and remains focused on the task at hand.

“I think any job would be a job worth fighting for,” he told Fox Footy’s AFL 360 this week.

“This one in particular given the size of the Carlton Football Club.

“I’ve felt this already, the power and support we have as a club. I think it’d be an exciting opportunity for whoever is ready to go through a process and earn that job.”

But park the discussion around semantics and whether Fraser will throw his hat in the ring or not.

Talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words. And the Blues’ winning streak is screaming out.

Even if the club may have some leftover scars from the failed appointment of its last caretaker coach, David Teague.

That was under a whole different administration, though, and this should be as a whole new set of circumstances and blank canvas.

There’s clearly a quota that Fraser could hit where he’d become something of a shoo-in. Combined with Fraser putting himself in the club’s official hiring process, rather than being handed the job.

As an extreme example, imagine if Carlton won the premiership. The job would clearly be Fraser’s, so there is some reality that the club’s performance endorses his credentials.

And if this improved level of performance can be maintained (not that they’ll go undefeated for the rest of 2026), the caretaker title should only boost his resume — not deter it — if he’s among the standout candidates in the interview process.

Even Voss declared “the results might just demand” Fraser is given the role.

To really simplify it, imagine if you had a long-time gardener who wasn’t doing a good job and you gave the flick to. Then, while you set out to find a new gardener, the interim replacement is doing impeccable work and available.

With that bizarre analogy, let’s look at the key improvements under Fraser and insights from one of the people who will be selecting the new coach.

METHOD, PLAYER IMPROVEMENTS

Let’s start with the method.

So much talk has been around how Carlton is playing a more free-flowing brand under Fraser. As if there’s been a pressure release.

But a renewed defensive focus has been a hallmark, with the club giving up scores of 62, 58, 84, 67 and 65 respectively under the caretaker coach.

Of course, that’s not exclusive to the back six, evident by how well they’ve defended in their last two games without star stopper Jacob Weitering.

It’s as much about full-ground pressure and nullifying teams from being able to move the ball, which Carlton is suddenly ranked among the best sides in the competition at.

Which has gone hand-in-hand with the Blues’ ability to control the ball itself. As they say, your best mode of defence is offence.

“I still think we credit Voss for the contest work, that has been a foundation,” Hawks great Jordan Lewis told On the Couch.

“But when we look at defence, it’s not necessarily to do with groundballs in defensive 50, spoils or defensive acts. A lot of is attributed to how they move the ball, their uncontested marks have gone through the roof.”

Lewis suggested players were “more energised” on game day in a credit to the way Fraser has set up the week and prepared the team.

“You can see it, it is clear and it is evident. Your eyes tell you they are a pressure team now, it’s part of their identity,” Lewis added.

“They are certainly finding momentum.

“(Increased uncontested marks) is a lever you pull to save your defence, in a way, and not make it a shootout.

“Defence is one part of their game that’s been under question. So, control the ball a bit more, build it up, less risk through the middle of the ground.

“Which means they’re not as vulnerable behind the ball. That’s been a clear shift, the stats say that’s been a clear shift.”

Blues under Voss

Points against: 15th

Score per inside-50 against: 12th

Chain-to-score against: 14th

Defensive 50 to inside-50 against: 16th

Blues under Fraser

Points against: 2nd

Score per inside-50 against: 2nd

Chain-to-score against: 2nd

Defensive 50 to inside-50 against: 4th

Then there’s the improvement from players.

No one has personified that more than star skipper Patrick Cripps, who’s looked more like the dual Brownlow medallist we’re accustomed to after a slow start to the season, at least by his lofty standards.

Cripps has been the AFL’s No. 12 ranked player over the last five games and just looks a different beast.

Recruit Will Hayward has also shown off some of his best form under Fraser as the N0. 91 ranked player. And in fairness, it was always going to take some time for the Blues recruits and team as a whole to mesh after so many list changes in the off-season.

Harry McKay (No. 88 ranked player) and Jagga Smith (No. 85) are among the others that have improved since Fraser took the helm.

Along with Smith, youngsters Billy Wilson, Jack Ison, Harry Dean and Talor Byrne have provided an exuberance of youth.

And veterans George Hewett and Blake Acres have recaptured some of their best form after spending time in the VFL earlier this season.

“It helps if some your better players being in better form, led by Cripps,” triple premiership Lion Jonathan Brown said.

“Obviously there was talk he could be leaving at the start of the year and he was well below form.

“Someone even said he should get dropped, I’m not sure about that! ‘Crippa’ has been amazing the last few weeks.

“Jagga Smith is growing into his first season as an AFL footballer, getting the pace of the game and he’s getting plenty of centre ball up time.

“Hayward has gone onto the wing and been good. And Harry McKay a bit more in the ruck, what we saw two or three years ago, he’s playing with a bit more presence.”

Carlton’s big improvers since Round 10

Harry McKay - No. 336 to No. 88 (+248)

Will Hayward - No. 297 to No. 91 (+206)

Jagga Smith - No. 220 to 85 (+135)

Patrick Cripps - No. 90 to 12 (+78)

A WORD FROM SIMMO

As Tigers champion Jack Riewoldt pointed out, Blues chief executive Graham Wright has picked a coach “from obscurity before.”

Wright was part of Collingwood’s selection panel that appointed Craig McRae, who Riewoldt estimated was “probably 500-1” to coach the Pies at one stage.

That, along with early murmurings that the Blues have interest in other untried coaches, should also work in Fraser’s favour.

Not to mention that Fraser was something of a left-field candidate to replace Voss as interim coach in the first place, so clearly Blues insiders saw something in him.

Eagles premiership boss Adam Simpson, who’s on the selection panel to pick Carlton’s next coach, likes what he’s seeing including how well Fraser has handled himself in the media.

Simpson also noted how Fraser has kept things simple for the group and praised his understanding of the game.

“The rhetoric around Josh is he’s a learning and evolving coach. He’s done so much, hasn’t he?,” Simpson said on AFL 360.

“I think winning five in a row has clearly changed the narrative a bit.

“But the media stuff has really surprised me, how well he’s handled every question.

“The way he’s gone through that, focused on two or three points on game day and how they scout an opposition, all those types of things. You can tell the X’s and O’s is not an issue.

“It’s the rest of the coaching you probably don’t see day to day, week to week, when you’re interim coach. That’s the next phase for him.”

Simpson did point out the senior coaching tasks that can be missing for interim coaches, like list management, dealing with the board and hiring and firing staff.

But 14 weeks in the top job is just about as good an apprenticeship as you’re going to get.

And, at least from the outside, it would appear Fraser has excelled in some of the other key areas of modern coaching, like man management and creating the right environment for players.

“It’s different when you’re (the caretaker coach) for three games, compared to 14. How much of a senior coach role is he going to undertake?,” Simpson posed.

“He’s working through 50 or 60 per cent of a full complete role and there’s some of the things he doesn’t have to touch on at the moment.

“But if you’re coaching for 14 weeks, a bit of that creeps in.”

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