"IT'S A big game for our football club."

Michael Voss was keen to focus on the footy when speaking to media at IKON Park, two days prior to Carlton's first home game of the season against Richmond.

Here's what he had to say.

On the Sam Docherty commentary:

"I didn’t give it a hell of a lot of thought. People keep asking me about last year’s best and fairest that I said we “culturally defeated ourselves” - I think it’s another example of that. For us to have a productive conversation, we’re not going to get mixed between the old and the new. We’re new - and that’s the way we’re going forward.

"I can spend a lot of time talking about that, but I’d prefer to talk about the game and beginning again. That’s what you need to know. I don’t spend a hell of a lot of time focusing on or sharing what others say about us, what I do is reinforce the behaviours we need and that when times get tough, we stick together."

On how the game transpired in Opening Round:

"It caught us a bit by surprise, because the information we had before that was certainly not that. We found moments where we had to fight when needed, and we didn’t through the third quarter when we needed to. When you think of the context of the game, where there’s 4:30 left in the third quarter and you’re a couple of kicks off it, you expect us to be able to fight better than that. We let ourselves down in that.

"We’re going to have some imperfection in the early days, we’re going to step into the new. With that, we’re chasing the game model we want to play and want to do it more consistently. There may be moments of break, but in those particular times, we do expect that we stick together as a footy team. It may not look perfect, but we’ve got to fight more through those moments. That’s definitely something we need to get better at.

"We have to reinforce our trademark and the identity we want to play. It’s finding that reinforcement but also acknowledging that we want to keep progressing as a footy team, and find these marginal improvements. There’s been a ton of work through the pre-season that we weren’t able to execute: we address it with honesty, we take ownership over it, it’s the only way we know. Then we look at the points of improvement we need to make before our next game.

On failing to maintain Sydney's outside run in the second half:

"As the game went on, I can’t dispute that. The only way we change that is by going about what we do next. It’s been something we’ve done a hell of a lot of work on over this pre-season, not just how we defend but how we manage the ball. That’s going to be an important part for us moving forward. It’s 30 minutes of football and at the moment it’s just that, we won’t make it any bigger than it needs to be."

On the two-ruck dynamic:

"The combinations and what we go with is a work in progress. When you look across the comp, teams are using it slightly different. Brisbane used a second ruck, some other teams had an extra midfielder, others had a small forward. I don’t think it’s necessarily consistent with how people are applying it, they’ll apply it to how it’s relevant to their team.

"We’ll keep balancing it up, but we’re looking to found out what our best combination is - we haven’t found exactly what that is at this point of time. We’d like everyone in form and feeling good about themselves. We’ve got some reason for that, we’ve got some reasons to be able to get better.

"One of the key strategies coming in was the influence of Grundy, and I’d say ‘Pitto’ and him did a good job at being able to do that. Weighing up that strategy plus the impact forward of the ball is something we’ll consider weekly, we’ll work through what those combinations look like moving forward."

On who replaces Adam Saad:

"Matty Carroll and Lachie Cowan are both available, it was important to us last week to get them through managed minutes in the VFL. Those two become available, I’m guessing one of those two will take his spot."

On the prospect of Jagga Smith v Sam Lalor:

"I don’t think I want Jagga at full back! Through the middle, I hope we get to see it. They’re both talented young men.

"Having to decipher all the evidence through the draft, they’re both very different players: one is very power-orientated, then there’s Jagga who we felt was the player for us. I’m sure Richmond aren’t disappointed either. I’m sure they’ll cross paths, we obviously hope we get the upper hand. It’s something to look forward to out of the game.

"It’s our first home game of the year, to be able to get our supporters there is really important to us. A lot gets spoken about our football club, but one thing we do get is we get to energise our stadium. The contest itself is something we’re really looking forward to."

On addressing last year's Round 1 clash with Richmond:

"We step out of the old and go into the new. We’re going to have upwards of 10-12 people that are different to that team. When I say out of the old and into the new, we need to get our heads around that - that’s what we’re trying to embrace.

"We’ve got a different dynamic, the way we want to play is different, there’s going to be some challenges in that. It won’t be perfect. We’ve got to accept that imperfection. If we’re going to get to where we’re going to go, we have to accept that imperfection and the noise around that, and keep moving forward."

On the challenge Richmond presents:

"They’ve still got their experience. Their youthful energy is clearly something they do have, but ‘Nank’ is still in the middle, Taranto is in the midfield, Lynch is still full forward, they’ve got guys down back that can help like Vlastuin if he’s available. Then they’re surrounded by youth.

"You can’t ever accept that a game is going to be anything other than hard. When we step into every single game, especially these ones, there’s an element of passion and it becomes a bit more personal. This is an important game for our football club."