STAY HUMBLE, stay hungry.

That was part of the overarching message which AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss has passed on to his players upon the resumption of another pre-season.

Ahead of this third campaign at the helm, there was plenty for Voss to discuss: this is what he had to say.

How’s your new mate, Robbie?

“I wasn’t expecting that as the first one! Yeah, we go way back.

“He’s going well, it was a nice little experience to be able to exchange some notes. He was pretty inquisitive on a few things, it’s nice to know he’s been watching us and taking some interest.”

What did he ask about?

“He asked how we were going to go next year, what we think we need more of. He had a couple of thoughts around that, we’ll take that on! We might be able to implement some of that strategy, we’ll add some music to our environment.

“No, it was a great experience and it speaks to the energy that was built in the back-end of last year. To have people like that coming on and supporting us the way that they have adds to that excitement.”

What’s your overwhelming emotion coming back on day one with the players back?

“Energised.

“There’s a real base to work off. There are a lot of things that we take away from last year, but probably the most important thing was learning how to win and win consistently. “That’s something that as a football club, we still haven’t got exactly right.

“The main thing for us before we consider anything else is how do we replicate a really high standard throughout the home-and-away season. The last couple of years, we’ve been a little bit up and down in that particular department, so our pre-season focus is about setting that all up for us to give ourselves the best opportunity.

“We all know it’s not about one game, it’s going to be about our journey over 23-24 weeks. We have to be ready to go for that and produce a little bit more consistency through that period of time.”

This time last year, you stood here last year probably going ‘I think we can do it’. Now you’ve seen it, how do you transgress that for the next six months?

“Hope and belief are two different things. Coming in hoping that you’re going to have a good season is one thing as opposed to having belief.

“Belief is purely built off evidence. We’ve got more evidence to work with, but it doesn’t put us in a better position. We’re at the starting post like everybody else. We assume nothing and have to earn everything: that’s what pre-season is all about.

“We have to go to work and we have to earn what we’re given. Without a really good pre-season, we just won’t put ourselves in a great position. The early signs through day one and how the players are coming back in, we’ve got a pretty fit group. A large majority are there to hit the ground running day one: when you get that body of work in, it gives you the chance to set up your season well.”

How encouraging is it to have such a big group? Sam Walsh last year was interrupted in his pre-season, so to hit the ground running - when you went so deep in finals - must be pretty good for you.

“It’s pretty significant. You can dodge a lot of things, but the one thing you can’t dodge is avoiding the work.

“There were circumstances last year through a lot of operations at the back-end where some couldn’t get started in pre-season. We still had a huge body of players that did, and they’ve been able to back up season after season, but we’ve also got another group that can do with some work through this pre-season.

“‘Walshy’ is one of them, Matt Kennedy was in the same boat, Marc Pittonet was in the same boat. There were a number of players through the finish of last season, they weren’t able to get started in pre-season. Fortunately, we’re smaller in number in that regard this year, so that gives us an opportunity to get more work into the others.”

Have you got many senior players coming back to start today?

“We’ve got everyone bar about four or five. It’s really good to see: our expectations weren’t for them to start until next week. It’s been somewhat different for our group, watching others start when we’re not.

“We’ve played in the important weeks we want to play in and we want to continue to figure in those. To be able to have them back, see them energised and come back by their own choice, it’s particularly pleasing.

“We can say ‘stay hungry’, but at the end of the day, it’s up to the players to show it. They’ve shown that in numbers today.”

Was that a player-led thing?

“It must’ve been. It certainly hasn’t been driven by us: to see the amount of players out here today is particularly pleasing.”

You would’ve had time to reflect on 2023 as a club. What did you learn about yourself and the Club as a whole?

“We do have a very, very strong sense about what works, and we have a very strong sense of what doesn’t. We understand that coming into this season, that there'll be some greater expectations placed on what we do.

“But what we've learnt through that period of time is to keep our eyes in front of us and make sure that we get the work done. We have our ambitions high, every football club standing here has the ambition to figure prominently throughout the next season. But we've got a really, really strong sense about what works and what doesn't work, and drifting forward doesn't help us.

“It doesn't change what we want to achieve, but it doesn't help us. We've still got a lot to work on our game and we still feel like there's plenty of growth left in us, both from a system and also individually. So there's a lot to look forward to.”

Where’s Zac Williams at?

“He's progressing as expected. If we just use the timeline of his injury as a bit of a guide, it should be back to full fitness first week of Feb. He'll progress.

“I mean, he’s still about 10 months in, nine-and-a-half months in, so he'll slowly start to join into the skills program throughout this next month with obviously the hope that rolling into the new year that he'll start to figure a bit more.”

A few new faces, how are the draftees settling in?

“Really good. They were that excited, they came in on Friday absolutely popping. They were asking when they could run and get the ball work out: we said just cool your jets for a couple more days!

“They were just that excited and it just brings that real natural energy into the room. We've all been in that same situation where there's this real sense of anticipation and real nerves coming into the group for the first time.

“But the one thing I've learned about this group is and this football club is it’s extremely welcoming and extremely supportive. They’ll get a great environment to be able to work in, and they've got a good, strong leadership base around them now that has built some standards over time. That just gives you the best opportunity, that's all it does.

“Obviously we've had Elijah and Orazio coming into that as well, so I'm pleased that they'll be out there doing our training pre-Christmas as well.”

How does the Club handle the Elijah situation, obviously not being available for the first couple of weeks of the season?

“Well, the one thing that he was keen to do is to get a fresh set of eyes. He gets a fresh environment, he gets a fresh set of eyes. He’s stated this himself, he just wants to go out there and prove himself through the work he brings.

“And that's all we've asked him to do, that's what we're going to afford him at the same time. He gets that fresh set of eyes: what he does and how he behaves will be how he gets treated here. He’s prepared to put in the hard work, he's a hard worker.

“He’ll mesh in really well with the group, and he's got an added advantage having a brother here, which certainly helps. But we're just rapt to have him here, to have the family here as well. We continue that little family tradition amongst the team.”

What’s the realistic expectation with [Orazio Fantasia], and do you have a special plan sort of medically and strength and conditioning wise?

“We took it on in the hope we could obviously help in that regard. But we also understood where it sat. Clearly we feel like we can have an impact in getting him out there: his talent speaks for itself. He understands what's ahead of him.

“He understands that position that he's going for is going to have some genuine competition. The squad approach we had throughout last year will continue, so to me, it just adds to that real squad mentality.

“That's what it takes to get through a 23 or 24-week season: we've seen that you need to bat deep. So to be able to add even more talent in that part of the ground was pretty important to us.”

Is he fit right now?

“Yes he is. He's completely fine to go. We're sort of taking a steady approach with him though. He’ll come in and out of training to start off with pre-Christmas.

“But it's not through anything that he's got, we’re just making sure that we're building him back up and making sure we build them up properly.”

A few fans down to come down first at pre-season, what does it feel like to have that support there already?

“The Carlton army, we were sort of swept up in it as well, just the energy and excitement that it brought.

“And I think one of the most pleasing things for us at the back end of the year was just to see the smiles and the joy on our supporters and just how proud they were of the way that we were playing, and obviously the way we were able to see out games.

“We want to continue to play to that, and we want to obviously play in a way that they're really proud of us. Our whole environment is about elevating others: it's not just about our players, but it's also back to our supporters and our supporters back to us.

“They’ve certainly been able to do that over the over the last little period of time, and we obviously want to continue to bring that, especially when we talk about families and just being able to see the kids and the generational change and impact you're having.

“It's just that small little bit of extra motivation that you have coming through this period of time when no one's watching.”

Jordan Russell's been an addition to the coaching ranks as well. What’s he going to add and what’s he going to bring to the coaching ranks that’s different compared to your first two years?

“Obviously Ash [Hansen] had a fair bit on his plate and portfolio. The small little bits of luxury that are being added into the soft cap is giving us a bit more space to put the resources around applying group.

“We saw an opportunity with Jordan - obviously he's had past experience here some time ago - but he offers skillsets to be able to come in and be part of our coaching group, which has been important.

“Part of our strategy is building a really strong coaching group in to support these guys. But it also affords Ash to be able to to slip into a senior assistant role. You’ll notice I like coaching from the ground, so he would be able take some reins up in the coaching box, which will be a nice little advantage to us, we believe.”

Orazio also mentioned that he was exchanging Italian tomato sauce bottles with you back at Port. Has he done that yet?

“No, not yet. I believe that that little ceremony hasn't taken place as of yet with family.

“But I will be expecting somewhere, hopefully, if he's available by Round 0 - if that's what we're calling it - that there might be about a six pack of tomato sauce that's just sitting nicely there for me as a reward.”