AFTER a hot start at the MCG, Carlton held firm to keep their lead for the entire match against their arch rivals in Essendon in the King's Birthday Eve clash.
Showing composure and executing key adjustments at the final break, the Blues extended their margin in the last term to secure a well-earned four points.
Senior Coach Michael Voss praised his side’s ability to close out the game, crediting their maturity and application of key lessons learned over the bye.
Here's what he had to say.
On the mood in the coaches' box during the final moments:
"It was a bit different. I wasn’t sure how the game was going to play out, it was really end-to-end at different times and both teams seemed to be making some mistakes.
"To compose at the end, which was good, we were obviously really challenged for most of the second half so to correct a few things at three-quarter time: we were clearly being beaten around the ball, so our mids went to work on that.
"We had some really big plays, especially in the centre square bounce that gave us some good drive. They really lifted in that last quarter, which made a pretty significant difference for us."
On the fast start and closing out the game:
"A familiar tale early, the game looks easy, doesn’t it, when you’re sitting there at quarter time.
"We expected a challenge at different times because that’s the nature of the competition. We tip our hats to Essendon: they’ve shown over the last little period of time that they keep coming, they certainly did that against Brisbane the week before.
"To be able to compose ourselves late and finish the game off, you don’t get that without staying connected as a group. You can probably accuse we’ve lost that connection over periods of games for too long and it’s given the opposition an ability to be able to win those games.
"Fortunately, even though the method wasn’t fantastic, we were still able to stick at it as a group and we were able to get over the line in the end."
On the trend of scoring early and maintaining leads:
"It’s a step at a time. The bye gave us an opportunity to look at all of those things and maybe dig a bit deeper into the why and how we can get it better.
"Some of that was around our ball movement, some was around being able to make sure we can execute for longer and continue to persist.
"It’s a good problem to have if you’re in front by that much and you’re getting that many opportunities, it’s a good problem to try and solve.
"The harder one to solve is if you’re behind all the time, you get no opportunities and you’re trying to win the game from a negative base.
"It depends on the way you look at it: we’d like it to be different, we’d like some of the results to be different in the first half but now it’s abut moving forward, it’s about looking at the games we have now and building some momentum off the back off it."
On Jack Silvagni's return and other key changes:
"Having him back, our backline looks stronger with him down there as a back seven. We flipped a few things in the front half as well, and that probably goes back to the consistency basket a bit.
"We did try a lot of things, five changes in one night, that’s a lot. There was always some risk that a bit of fatigue sets in, maybe the execution of being able to do your roles is not there for long enough, but I saw enough tonight to know that more players were hitting the scoreboard: Charlie, Fantasia, McGovern, Williams.
"To get that big a change in one area of the ground and expect you’re going to roll out for 120 minutes for the first time might be a little bit too ambitious."
On Adam Cerra's head assessment:
"He was assessed as we do and with the capacity that we have at the time. I guess we took a cautious approach and did the HIA, so we followed that through, so once those two processes are done, it’s pretty clear from there.
"He seems fine in the rooms. This is one part of ongoing checks for the player and I think we took a very cautious approach, but I’d rather that than not."
On Adam Cerra, Blake Acres and Jesse Motlop's performances:
"They were all very important players. 'Cez' has had an extremely strong year and for him to be able to step up and take more ownership around the midfield has been a pretty consistent thing for 'Cez' for most of the year.
"For the other two to find some form over the game was really important, Blake being one of them.
"'Mots' has had some struggles, he openly admits that, he reset himself halfway, he’s had a great pre-season, done all the work, probably made a few things simpler for himself.
"He showed up in some big moments for us, both defensively and on the other side of the ball in offence, and as a result, he kicked the goals, but there were some really important moments for us that we needed."
On Ange Postecoglou:
"He is welcome here, but I don’t think we can afford him. If he wants to come and sit in my coaches' box, he’s more than welcome."
On Alex Cincotta's return and his role on Zach Merrett:
"He’s a pretty relieved man there and pretty proud of being able to get back. He’s come back from a pretty significant rehabilitation with his hip and he just competes: that’s really how you summarise him.
"We talk about Hudson O’Keefe as a competitor, he’s a young man, but you see the broad shoulders, when they fill out, look out, so to add those couple of guys was really important for us.
"[Cincotta] had Merret for most of the night – one of the real challenges with him getting those jobs done is how much it impacts your system.
"Clearly, Essendon were trying to do a lot of things to try and disrupt us, but I think we thought through most of it, but now we’ve got that feedback, we can go back and have a look at it and see what we would change – he was an important inclusion."
On Hudson O'Keeffe and getting experience into younger players:
"Six weeks ago, I didn’t think Hudson O’Keeffe was AFL-ready – we’re constantly looking at our list and he’s had some really important conversations.
"He’s gone to work on his game, particularly in the last six weeks more forward of the ball, not necessarily within the ruck, and credit to him and the development coaches that he’s spent the time to be able to work on the nuances of forward craft and marking, because he spent most of his time in the ruck.
"Slowly, over the course of the bigger picture for us is continuing to build the depth of our list and it comes with exposure for some of our younger players.
"Carroll, O’Farrell, Hudson O’Keeffe, Camporeale, we’ve now had four or five debuntants this year, and whether they end up playing 18 games or five, it’s pretty important to continue to give them exposure, and form-wise, [O'Keeffe] stacked up tonight which is a real credit to him."
On the VFL win and enjoying the positive moments:
"They had a win, we went back-to-back on that. It’s been a good day. It’s not perfect, we acknowledge that, but we’re going to enjoy this win.
"The competition is really hard and we cop our criticism but when it’s time to enjoy our win, we’re going to enjoy it and then we’ll lock in as professionals on Tuesday and lock in our next opponents.
"We’ve got a few things to work on and make more consistent but it’s a good start. That’s what we asked the players to do and they got the job done."
On his third-quarter address:
"I was a little animated. Maybe just a little correction was needed around the ball, but it got the response.
"Most of the night was about that, about their response, no matter what happens, just move forward.
"At three-quarter time, we had to let go of the third quarter and move onto the fourth quarter, wipe it from our memory and get on with it.
"To the mid's credit, there were +10 clearances in the last quarter, so they got to work and gave us the drive we needed.
"We could’ve finished off the game a bit better if we finished our players, but you have to say the response was there as it was most of the night."
On Harry McKay's late withdrawal:
"We’ll assess that during the week. He’ll get into training on Tuesday and we’ll assess that over the course of the week."
