AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss spoke to media on Friday morning ahead of the Blues' big home game against the Saints at Marvel Stadium.

On whether last week was closer to a four-quarter performance:

“There’s been two or three weeks, maybe even slightly longer than that, where we’ve shifted that narrative a fair bit. We’ve still got that 10 minutes of intensity that we need to continue, we’ve been playing against pretty good footy sides.

“To come home strong against a good opposition was pleasing and something we can leverage off, for sure.”

On whether Marc Pittonet will definitely play tomorrow night:

“He’s passed, he fully trained yesterday. He’s looking forward to the contest, he’s obviously familiar with who he’s playing against.

“They’ve got an important ruck duo that they’ve had for the early parts of the year, ‘Pitto’ has gone up against TDK for a fair bit so I don’t think there’ll be too many guesses there about what’s going to happen. He’s looking forward to it.

“Liam coming in last week was important, he had a good game against two quality ruckmen, especially Luke Jackson. He had his hands full, but he acquitted himself well and gets another opportunity.”

On the talk in the locker room coming up against some familiar faces:

“Not that I’ve heard, but I’m not going to pretend that there hasn’t been probably a bit of banter that’s been exchanged. I’m not sure what ‘Cotts’ gets up to, he’s the quiet assassin in all of this so that’s a wait and see.

“For what it’s worth, we walk out as competitors and put friendships aside. We’ve got jobs to do. But turn the microphones up, there might be a bit of banter between those two [Cottrell and De Koning].”

On conversations with George Hewett:

“He’d be somewhat disappointed. In all these conversations, not just George, we’ve had a number of players that have been in form and they’re the conversations you want as a coach. One of the big things that we’ve tried to get after is the durability of our group: these are great conversations right now, because we’re having plenty of them.

“It’s challenging the guys ahead of them in those positions, but it’s also putting them in a place to have some really good form. Guys like George, he’s really determined to get back in the AFL team and some younger players that are stating a really strong case. We’ve got Billy Wilson that’s played really good footy for a month now, ‘Saady’ is back in the team who’s been in really good form, Boyd, Flynn Young is one that’s been the most consistent.

“They keep challenging guys in those positions, and they’re the conversations we want to continue to have... The big thing for us is we always acknowledge the individual. I’ve got 45 players that want to play AFL, that doesn’t fit into the team.”

On chasing balance with roles:

“But we value our strength-based system, so when they come in, we want them to be able to play their role. It’s not about being in the best 23, it’s about playing a role for us.

“If there are guys in there doing a little bit better, they’ve got to keep their form going. We take a squad mentality. You want them to be there for the team, and not one of them has shirked that. They’ve accepted news, got the clarity and gone about their business to play good football. They’ve got to keep stating their case.

“There’s a balance in every team that you need to be able to have. This isn’t about one individual, but we’ve got to find a balance in our team. Whether that’s the forward line with talls or smalls, whether that’s midfield with the big boys inside versus the outside run - across all areas, we’re trying to find the balance and what’s going to be the cohesive unit we need.

“That’s the balance we’ve got: what’s the cohesion we want to build and where do we want to take this group, plus how do we add players that are in form - either younger or older - that can add value to our team.”

On his response to the AFL draft changes:

“There’s nothing really to add. As a club, we’ve been pretty steady on our position from day dot. We seek the runway, we didn’t get it. It’s up to the AFL to respond why they chose that particular course of action, we felt the immediacy of it was too tight considering we’re now working within four or five months.

“What we are in a position to do is with the estimation of something happening, we tried to future-proof ourselves last year. The decisions we made going into last year’s trade period were for this. We are very well-positioned for it, but at the same time, there’s the element of fairness of taking another 12 months to implement this. The decision is now made.”

On Cody Walker playing for the Carlton Reserves:

“We’ve got Cody that’s playing a game of VFL on the weekend for us, which is just fantastic for us… He’ll play a few games for us this year, which will be a good advantage for us.”

On updates with the Elijah Hollands situation:

“Nothing has changed there, there’s no update from our end at all. I couldn’t even add anything: the submission is there and that’s being considered by the AFL, we leave it at that. I couldn’t tell you the timeline.”

On Ollie Hollands travelling with the team last week:

“It’s an intangible. It’s one of those where you hope you get a spike: seeing him train this week, it was really important for him to come away with the team last week to get around his mates.

“Footy clubs are sometimes a great sanctuary for that sort of support and having the sense of belonging. We went away together and couldn’t quite get the job done, but he’s been fantastic this week and absolutely itching to get out there.”

On the reason behind lapses in-games:

“The big one for us is the amount of goals in a short period of time. We have to be better than that. We’ve spent a considerable amount of time on it, trying to get marginal gains. There’s been a run of goals or plays against us, and we need to be better at fighting our way through that.

“Whether that’s mental, physical, method or structure, it doesn’t matter. We’ve got to be better.

“Hopefully if we get asked that question, which we will at some stage in this game, we can shorten that margin. From 10 minutes to five minutes, five minutes to two minutes - and then get the game back going our way. I don’t think we should be walking into a game and not think an opposition is going to come at us at some stage.”

On if Patrick Cripps needs more protection at stoppages:

“He’s a big man and can look after himself. He’s going okay, too...”

On recent buzz cuts within the playing group:

“I could not tell you what’s going on with the haircuts. Have no idea their reasoning behind it, I can’t explain the youth of today - but what I can guarantee you is I will not be joining them. I value every hair on my head nowadays.”