"WE ACKNOWLEDGE the fight, but we can’t be comfortable in mediocrity."

No honourable losses. 

AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss was clear in his message in his post-match press conference, after Carlton nearly produced an incredible comeback against the Brisbane Lions.

Overturning a 49-point deficit in the third term to draw within two goals late in the game, Voss said the second half was distinctly much more like what the Blues want to be about... but putting themselves in a disappointing position had to be a source of motivation.

Here's what he had to say.

On what the second half represented:

"It highlights the capacity that’s in the group, but it’s also a familiar narrative. The game asks you to play for longer, and we’re playing against the reigning premiers. They tried to take the game away from us early and did a great job at doing that.

"We asked for a response quite forcefully at half time, and to the boys’ credit they came out fighting. It didn’t quite go all our way in the first few minutes of the third quarter… we fought, which was pleasing.

"Whether we were a chance to win is really hard to say, but it always felt like we were one goal off it from really asking the question. They were able to steady with Neale kicking that goal, and that was probably the difference in the end."

On what changed in the final two quarters:

"What you could tell after half time was there was a confidence growing within the group. The little battles, we were starting to win which we were losing in the first quarter. Some of the connections forward of the ball that we were missing we started making, we finishing with 20 marks inside 50. We didn’t look like it in the first half.

"We got field position, we kept the ball in our half - all the things we want to be building our game on the back of, they were certainly evident and challenged a very good football team. We utilised their drop in intensity to pick up our own, and that gave us the confidence to be able to finish the game the way we did.

"But we’ve still got to be better than playing a half of football."

On personnel changes in the second half:

"The big difference in the end was they’ve had 10 shots on goal from centre-square bounce - they kicked 3.7. We were pretty handy ourselves and kicked 2.4. That was a really good battle.

"‘Crippa’ and ‘Walshy’, Jagga spent more time through the middle of the ground and his second half was really good. We walk out of the game and get further clarity on what we need to keep producing.

"But we walk away disappointed. We acknowledge the fight, but we can’t be comfortable in mediocrity. We’ve got to have higher standards of ourselves than that, and we’ll continue to find out what that looks like for us so we can replicate it more often."

On not walking away happy with an honourable loss:

"We walk away very much not happy with that. We’ve put ourselves in positions in most games to win, but I’m also sick of saying that. We’ve got to find those few more moments in a game, and I think the guys get genuine confidence off what they’ve been able to do.

"Next week is a different challenge, it doesn’t present itself the same way. We’ve got to utilise that momentum that we were able to get in the second half and take it into the next game we play."

On the difference in second half this week compared to previous:

"It shows you that we have the capacity in there to finish off games really strongly - maybe the difference was that we were chasing. We could go for it a bit. We have to replicate that same mindset.

"We let ourselves down in the first half: just watching, it didn’t feel like our hunt for the ball was on, we gave away way too many uncontested marks, couldn’t get any pressure on the game. We gave them the style of football that we know that when they play well, you’re next to no chance. In our front half, we couldn’t find our connections - that completely flipped in the second half.

"There’s a model in there that definitely works. Those sort of results do say so, but it also says that we’re not doing it for long enough. That’s something we have to continue to work on."

On what the commentary will be coming out of the result:

"I don’t coach for my job. I coach for building a culture. By the time I leave here, it’s that we’ve got winning behaviours and we understand clearly what that looks like. We clearly understand what it looks like when we need them and when we don’t. I coach to create an environment that enables that to happen.

"Often people will make it about your job, but we’ll make it about something else. That’s what we’ve got to continue to reinforce within our own environment, and build that positive energy around the place.

"There is a spirit within this group that keeps coming. But we’ve got to learn that method of learning how to win and how to execute more often."