Looking to bounce back, AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss spoke ahead of the Carlton’s Thursday night fixture against the Brisbane Lions

Ahead of their clash against the reigning premier at Marvel Stadium, Voss spoke to the media: here’s what he had to say.

On how has the last week affected him:

“I think you sort of go into reflection mode through these weeks. I remember as a four-year-old following my dad around, spending time in the sheds - he was captain and coach of everything, you remember those moments fondly.

“I always felt like football made you feel like you belong, and that’s what football clubs are all about. You have a sense of belonging, a sense of family -it’s about bringing people together.

“I’ve also seen the dark side of football. Where we blame, we victimise and it’s this toxic environment where we think showing passion is anger – and it’s not about that at all.

“So, when you see both, it’s what you choose. When I turn up on the weekend, I look at that four-year-old and think about families and communities and how we bring people together. What we want our environment to be, and what it’s supposed to be, and that is what is extremely important to me.

“We will move on and continue to bring a supporter base that supports us in good times and supports us in bad times.

“As a result of what I do, you appreciate the element of scrutiny that comes with it - but then there’s a part that’s completely unacceptable and I think we can all agree that part is unacceptable.

“We don’t tolerate that as an industry, we leave that with the AFL Integrity Unit and I expect a forthright response… it will get dealt with.

“I’ve never been more forthright and more confident about our direction and what we need to do. We’ve got amazing people, and amazing players.

“There’s an amazing group of people, a great team over there that are pouring their energy into getting the best out of themselves. It hasn’t quite worked over the last couple weeks, but there is a reset tomorrow and that’s what we will do against Brisbane - the best team in the competition.”

On the team’s effort:

“It’s been a pretty clear picture for us, the competitive nature and the way we’ve played has probably kept us in games. We’ve spoken a lot about why we haven’t been able to finish those games off, but the collective effort has diminished somewhat.

“When we describe effort, the work rate can be there but are you working together? Are you working on the right things? We just haven’t been able to get enough consistency and intensity around the ball, and that’s put an enormous amount of pressure on us being able to execute.

“It’s not like we don’t have a clear picture of what that needs to look like, but we also know that when we’re playing against quality opposition like we are this week, the current premiers… they’ve got a lot of phases that they do really well. That’ll put tension on all of it, but the first thing that we need to is start well against a very good opposition.”

On questions around Charlie Curnow’s form:

“I think collectively we need to shift. They’re all very talented individuals that have got their own strengths and what they bring to the table, so we will continually ask for that. But, also the way we need to get after this is doing it together.

“It’s not going to be about one particular moment that is going to help: I like what Charlie’s been able to do the last few weeks – he hasn’t been able to hit the scoreboard, but he’s had a big impact, he’s competing hard. I feel like he has snapped together a few good weeks and we will build on that.

“We’d like to give him a few better looks when we’re going forward – it hasn’t been a problem before but it has been the last couple of weeks, so we obviously need to address that.”

On Tom De Koning’s role:

“I think we just keep it as a black and white conversation for now. We need him to play a role forward of the ball at the moment.

“’Pitto’ has been in some great form and having another tall player down there beside Charlie has been really important. How we structure up the field is going to be important, that presence down the line will be important and maintaining intensity around the ball for 120 minutes has to be a feature of our game this week.”

On Nic Newman re-signing:

“He’s a quality human being. We back in the body of work that he’s had. We had to make a really big decision this week, whether we continue with his return or we obviously park it for another time.

“For him to be able to get the extra year without playing, speaks volumes about the impact he has behind the four walls - that’s not even just impacting out on the ground, he’s a genuine leader for us. He creates great stability, he’s created a great sounding board for a lot of players - and I know if you asked a lot players about him, they’d say what a sort of great teammate he’s been for them over a period of time. He’s been a very important person for us.”

On the responsibility of the leadership group:

“It’s always first and foremost about the leaders, it always is. That’s what we want to continue to model, how we live and what we value and how we actually get the best out of people.

“They’re the conversations we have on almost daily basis as a leadership group. I sit firmly within that, so the conversation will remain that way between us - obviously the follow-up conversations happen, we get to reset ourselves and display some of those things we need to value tomorrow against Brisbane.”

On their contested style:

“Every team plays a contested style: without it, you can’t get your style together. There’s got to be a minimum expectation. There are some added things we need to make sure we’re getting better at to complement what that looks like.

“It’s an important phase in the game and it’s a starting point to be able to bring the effort that’s required. We will continue to reinforce that and continue to build on that. In the background, there’s obviously some things we need to able to do to complement what that strength looks like.”

On Sam Walsh’s delayed return: 

“He’s ok. As we progressed to his running last week, he didn’t run as fast as what he wanted so that’s why the step back was needed.

“I think he’s expected to re-engage with that running later in the week, and then he will go from there. Like everything with these things, while they have a timeline, it’s more milestone based. As we achieve those milestones you can step up to the next phase: we’re hoping he goes through those pretty quickly from here.”

On how the group gets their confidence back:

“Action - it’s all action and all the little things we need to be able to do.

“It’s not about necessarily how I’m performing, it’s how we are preforming. It’s continuing to celebrate those little things that ignite the energy and make it contagious. It’s also pretty easy when you walk into a stadium that energises you.

“We talk about support, we have had an enormous amount of support. The Carlton faithful continue to turn up and I’m sure that stadium will be as loud as ever. We’re playing against a pretty good opposition and we’re pretty determined to make sure we go out there and do our best.”

On getting past Brisbane:

“They’ve been pretty good; the big thing is for them they’re strong in a lot of areas.

“For us at the moment it’s to keep it pretty simple and we will start from there. There are obviously some threats we need to take off them, but the reality is someone will have an impact - you stop one and another one will pop up. It’ll take a pretty collective effort to get it done.”

Jaspar Wilson-Keir is a student at La Trobe University, undergoing his Bachelor of Media and Communications (Journalism and Marketing). He is currently undertaking an internship at the Carlton Football Club as part of its partnership with La Trobe University.