A GREAT response.
Michael Voss laid the challenge down to his side during the week, and they responded in kind, recording a gritty 29-point win against a persistent Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium.
The Blues once again stormed out of the blocks but were able to stay in front for the entirety of the contest, ultimately kicking away late for their seventh win of the season.
It continued Carlton's good run of form under the roof with Voss at the helm, now recording 13 wins from 19 games at the venue during his tenure: this is what he had to say.
On how he saw the game as a whole:
“It’s a game of persistence. It’s where you’ve got to believe in the manner you’re playing. Does it look like us, even though the scoreboard might not be ticking over? There were probably a few opportunities lost, on the other side a couple of great goals kicked by the opposition kept them in it.
“It was a matter of persistence, to keep believing in the way we were playing. We were setting up the game the way we wanted it, and hopefully with the weight of that, eventually something happened. In the last quarter, we were able to get the scoreboard ticking over.
“We probably put the game to bed a little bit further out, which was a nice point of difference for us! To be able to finish off the game strongly, essentially by persisting with what we needed to do and the way we were playing, was particularly pleasing.”
On the Blues’ overall profile:
“We had some great moments with ball in hand. It hasn’t been something we’ve been scoring a lot from in more recent times, but I thought what the players did really well was take what they gave us. If the mark’s there, we were able to change the angles.
“Uncontested possessions I think we won by over 100, that’s significant, and to win contested possession as well made it really difficult for Gold Coast to get their hands on the ball. There was a lot to like with the way we moved the ball tonight, and it was something that’s been a work in progress for us over the last little while.
“We’ve had plenty of feedback from recent performances against extremely good sides, and we’ve gone to work on some aspects of our game. It was set up in the first three quarters and settled well in the last.”
On the midfield battle against a talented Gold Coast outfit:
“They’re a very talented group of players. With Witts as the main ruckman as well, it was super important. Our mids are a very proud group and we lowered our colours in that area last week to a pretty handy team to be fair, that have shown that against anybody they’re stacking up well.
“There were clear things we needed to get after last week: most of it was about our heat on the ball and their ability to extricate it without enough pressure on the ball. At the end of the day, the best way to be able to beat teams that build pressure is create your own. That’s something we didn’t bring to that game, and it was something that when we needed our turn, we did.
“Our tackle count was down, but when you weigh that up against all the other numbers with our contested possession, ground ball and our ability to keep possession of the ball, it’s probably not a number we need to pay too much attention to.”
On Charlie Curnow’s performance:
“We didn’t do him any favours in the first half. Our inside-50 entries early were a little bit troublesome. We had to get some better balance going forward, and clearly Andrew had a really big say on that. That contest was an intriguing one in some ways, looking at two very athletic individuals.
“Fortunately with our forwards, they went to work on it a fair bit. We went to work on how we entered inside 50, a bit smarter on where we went to, worked a bit better as a team and we were able to get that contest more in our favour. He’s a talented young man.”
On two different roles in the team:
“We’ll look at our performance like we always do, with clarity. We’ll chase some things we want to keep getting better at and reinforce the things that we did really well. There were some great roles played, some changes that we got.
“Having Zac go forward and play the role he played, we almost had a dual win being able to bring in Cowan and have him play down back. To have a young, developing half-backer be able to come in and play his role, and then have Zac go forward and hit the scoreboard was a pretty big win for us.
“There were some roles we needed, and guys really stepped up and took ownership of those . . . It’s amazing when you have some challenges, you find your opportunities. There are a couple of guys that have taken their opportunities and been able to get their jobs done.”
On Alex Cincotta’s role on Touk Miller:
“He’s probably taken a few more of the smalls that have been in the forward line, he’s had some really important roles with Hill and Pickett, Papley last week as well, and done some great jobs.
“He’s a hungry young man that’s desperate to play for the Navy Blue. He loves to play for the jumper and he’s got a long history here, he’ll fight to the death no matter what. You love having those people in your team.
“They’ve got some great talent in their midfield, you could’ve chosen two or three to be fair, but we felt Miller was a pretty important player.”
On Tom De Koning’s showing:
“It’s unfortunate for ‘Pitto’ that he’s not in the team because they’ve combined extremely well. But we knew exactly what we were getting with TDK, in terms of him being able to get the job done.
“Where he’s really matured as a player is his consistency to be able to do it over four quarters and bring that energy, it’s something he’s grown. He does grow with that responsibility. He was playing against a very good ruckman and held his own and gave our midfield a good look at the ball. That’s all we ever ask.
“He’s played against some really good oppo rucks and competed pretty hard: it gives us a lot to think about.”
On Mitch McGovern and Jacob Weitering, who received knocks during the game:
“Wears of the season. It’s now Round 11 and at this point in time, you’re going to have a couple of bang-up spots and those boys had a couple.
“‘Weiters’ had the corky last week and got a direct knock there again, which is never nice in the exact same spot. The same with ‘Gov’ in the contest where he got a bit sore, he was managed a little bit but got through the game okay.
“We do have a short turnaround, but it looks like everyone else has pulled up pretty well.”
On any potential returns for Thursday night:
“Motlop got through his run in the VFL, which was a run he absolutely needed. He’s the main one that stands out.
“Whether we go down that path or not, I felt like our group played a really good team brand of football today. There was a really good spread of performance across the group.
“When you looked at our game, it was more us and the way we wanted to play. I’ll be the grumpy coach and say I would’ve loved to defend harder for longer, but I’m really proud of what we were able to do today.”
