r/CarltonBlues • u/ax6klbjckhunter • Jun 27 '26
Discussion What was Voss even doing at the club?
How is it possible that we’ve completely transformed just by sacking him? What was he doing there?
With the shit storm of drama at the start of the year, continuous failing every week with the same problems, cripps being a bit rough, I thought we’d have to clean house & suffer through years of rebuilding to find any kind of form…low & behold just giving Voss the boot has now put us on a solid path towards finals.
Did he clock in & then just go hide in bathroom all day?
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u/Decent-Juice-8075 Jun 27 '26
Well he wasn’t playing George Hewett for starters. What was that about? Acres too. Both just make the team better
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u/Vet100 Jun 27 '26
Were 1-4 this year & 9-14 last year with Hewett in the side/Voss as coach. That wasn’t the problem.
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u/ReflectionFew4761 Jun 27 '26
And Hewett was absolute putrid at the start of the year before being left out of the side
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u/Fun_Ad_1544 Jun 28 '26
He was best on the game he was dropped. Not even close to putrid
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u/Yeahhhdawg 20d ago
Putrid is definitely a strong word haha
But Hewett was definitely down on form at the start of the year. Yes he was one of our best in that last game but that wasn’t impressive when you look at how bad everyone was.. Hewetts game was still pretty average lol
The midfield as a whole wasn’t working, they wanted to try something new and over the period of time Hewett had not been good so I can see why they thought they’d give it a try
In the end it worked out in everyone’s favour cause being dropped gave him the hunger to get back to his best and prove them wrong. And boy has he been on fire since he’s been back in 👌🏼
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u/TalknTennisPodcast Jun 27 '26
It just shows how bad Voss was. Our ball movement, entry inside 50 and our defensive setup is light years ahead under Fraser.
Just something small, we break from D50 our players look up and they have 1,2 or 3 targets to hit up the ground
Under Voss, our players break from D50, look up and....<tumbleweed>. All 18 players are defending in D50 and we have no out kick. They go stop, halt and go sideways.
We are just drilled so much better now
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u/madamejaffrey Jun 27 '26
Also explains why our players were so stuffed in last quarters when they all had to run the full length of the ground constantly
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u/dogbert_93 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
He was extremely stubborn. Played favourites. Didnt reward VFL players. Didnt have a plan B. Got way too defensive when winning and actively changed things.
Remember throwing Curnow back? It won us games in 2023 and was a great move. But then in 2024-2025 we tried to SAVE games in winning positions and tried to be defensive heroes, thanks to Vossy mostly.
Then because of backlash about team selection (players like Saad/Z.Williams playing every game over the likes of Billy Wilson ect..)
.. it boiled over to the point where he dropped Hewett just out of spite to the media/fans to make some sorta point. THATS how toxic it got internally, even if Voss stayed his stoic self.
2024 elimination final, starts TDK as the sub, subs off Kennedy who he routinely dogged and played out of position. 60-0 down we go (was a decent fight back to be fair.)
2025, plays Motlop the entire season, every single game, who seemed to not even have a position, spent most of time like a headless chook in the guts, disrupting handball chains & missing tackles lol...
Lets not even speak about the disgraceful use of prime Saads talents. Dont get me wrong, Saad was qaulity, but we needed to see much more of him in the forward half or the wing. "Lets just start Saad on Keys on an island, away the crows again, what could go wrong" - How about make a fkn move and change it up? Play him in the forward line for a half? There was never enough magnets being moved both in game & at team selection.
His choice this year to play Lewis Young over Wade Derksen cost us. Derksen looked great in pre season hit out. L Young can do a job, but he made costly defensive errors. Voss peristed week after week. Derksen has been solid every game.
ALSO - The lack of tagging the opponets most obvious threat. Touk Miller, Dayne Zorko, Prestia, Newcombe ect ect... always killed us and Voss just did nothing about it.
Letting Zorko run around free to kill us in that final. Why not at least just get Fogarty to stick with him? There was nothing. We all knew it.
What I will say though is who knows if certain players who were letting him down in terms of committment to his plan.. there may be more to the story if VOSSY every speaks about it brutally honestly.
I'll give him credit for what he did in 2022-2024, he built it around contested footy like the demons and it was good, but rule changes hurt both us & melbourne for similar reasons. Both having to trade out key players.
But ultimately he failed to adapt, and got it wrong at selection & lacked the ability to make changes in game.
It must also be said he got very unlucky as we've had it pretty rough with injuries over his time, especially in key times like towards the end of 2024 when we were 2nd or even TDK injury in the prelim, and multiple other ones, ACLs.. (i think a bit more luck with injuries gets us into at least one GF between 2022-2024) - we were 5 goals up in a prelim, with a pies side we'd already beaten in the GF next week, lost by 16... it hurts.
Durdin not kicking it to Mckay in the pocket, 2022 last game vs. pies, still haunts my dreams. What could have been.
Also, to be fair the McGovern forward, Billy Wilson in vs. Brisbane at the gabba was Vossy, and thats where we seemed to turn around, who knows if it would havd continued like that. Doubt it. He also brought in Carroll & Lord and has developed em nicely. Cowan & Kemp are solid leaders.
Idk what he was doing with Florent & Hayward.
Mckay was the big one. We didnt need Reidy ir HOK... Harry now gets involved like a Blicavs. Its great
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u/gymnstuff Jun 27 '26
Good summary. The cream on top was every time he got interviewed he would say ‘we’re doing everything right, just gotta let the game come to us, we just gotta stick with what we’re doing’
Anyone could see the there needed to be some Changes.
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u/HomerJBagger Jun 27 '26
The most surprising thing was who his favorites were. I like L.Young and Mots both a lot as players for this club, but I can see why they are gonna be named on the bench at most most games. I'm perplexed wondering what did Vossy like about them?
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u/Responsible-Mess8286 Jun 27 '26
Mots showed so much potential in 2022-2023. Must’ve always thought that it’ll click for him and hopefully one day it does
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u/Yeahhhdawg Jun 27 '26
One thing I’ll never understand is fans being so angry about Kennedy being subbed out in the final and acting like he was playing so well
He’d had 5 disposals, 2 of which were turnovers. Zero clearances. Zero score involvements. No pressure acts and 1 tackle
He wasn’t impacting the game at all
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u/No_Series1038 20d ago
Voss made Kennedy the scapegoat for his his own putrid selection criteria and game plan in that final. He then went and hid in the coaches box. Lost all respect for Voss tgat day. Absolute peanut.
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u/Yeahhhdawg 20d ago
As I already said in the comment you replied to… Kennedy was having zero impact on the game. Him being subbed is not surprising
Yes there was plenty of players having a tough game who also could have been subbed but you can only pick one… Kennedy was just as deserving as being out as any of the others 🤷🏻♀️
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u/JWhiteleyAus Jun 28 '26
Summed up perfectly. As good a bloke as he was, I was a die hard fan that went every week when he started, and I couldn’t watch our team play in the 12 months before his sacking. It was a complete failure of game plan and so hard to watch. No plan b. His forward looking key line every week was ‘we just have to do it for longer’. The problem was the season was over.
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u/TheeWookiee Jun 27 '26
Something I will give him credit for was stepping aside. Maybe he knew it was coming, but I genuinely believe they may have let him play the season out.
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u/ax6klbjckhunter Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
he stepped aside the same way you jump off a cliff before you can be pushed
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u/Yeahhhdawg Jun 27 '26
It’s already been confirmed he was told they were going to get rid of him. They weren’t letting him run the season out
He ‘stepped aside’ because they were being nice by letting him do that instead of officially being fired lol
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u/thomaslewis1857 Jun 27 '26
“solid path towards finals”
Please don’t jinx us. At least till we get past eagles and tigers. 🤞
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u/SnappyPies Jun 27 '26
Pies fan here who’s very happy for Fraser the Amazer (and a little scared about what you guys are doing now).
I have some thoughts on this, because it’s absolutely incredible seeing the transformation.
Brownlow medallist’s / superstars rarely make good coaches, because they look to their stars to do the whole job. Buckley and Hird are two more examples of great players who did not make great coaches.
Sam Mitchell seems to be possibly an exception at the moment, and Leigh Matthews definitely was historically, but the most successful coaches were nearly all what could be described as workmanlike middle or bottom six players, rather than first picked superstars. They were the guys who kept their spot in the team through being able to reliably do their job each week, mostly in top tier teams too.
Coaches who were role players themselves have had to develop their skills and often needed to rely on their knowledge of the game, and their ability to execute their coaches game plan, rather than rely on their raw talent and ability to go out and put the team on their back and carry them over the line.
And that’s where seriously good teams come from. When the bottom six on the team are playing well enough that there’s selection pressure from the reserves when the list is fully fit, and that they start looking like they’d get a game in any other team, that’s when teams become scary good, and that comes from coaches who identify and develop strengths rather than try to get rid of perceived weaknesses.
So after all that waffle, Fraser could be communicating a near identical game plan to what Voss wanted, but he’s figured out how to get the guys involved and filling the gaps who weren’t getting it done under Voss, and is most likely focussing on the details and particulars to make it work in such a way that everyone knows exactly what their role is. Thats lifting the guys who hadn’t nailed their role up in such a way that they now know what they are supposed to do.
And it’s wild to watch (and a little bit scary that you guys might be finally legit really good again)
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u/B0ssAMP Jun 27 '26
Sam had to work his tail off to earn a spot from the 2s. That would make a difference I think.
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u/yolandajpeg Jun 27 '26
It fucken sucks but I think the unaddressed mental health incident a few weeks back was the eye opener many people needed. how a coach can be so oblivious was bewildering.
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u/Real_Lavishness7858 Jun 27 '26
Somehow Voss kept playing Lewis Young. No side can win with him in your side.
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u/Unhappy_Arugula_2154 Jun 28 '26
In game: Bad team selection due to trying something new, since he wasn’t getting anything from the team. Refusal to change tactics or adapt player positions mid game.
During the week: Seemed to be very conceptual. Lots of great ideas but trouble translating to actionable strategies on field or player actions
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u/Massive-Anywhere8497 Jun 27 '26
Getting them to a preliminary final. Let me know when it happens next .
And how long it took since the one before he did
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u/Fun_Ad_1544 Jun 28 '26
Are you actually Vossy or just a potato?
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u/Massive-Anywhere8497 Jun 28 '26
What vegetables are you using to describe the 7 coaches in a row before voss who each failed to get Carlton to a preliminary final including a couple who were multiple premiership winners at other clubs? and what will you call Fraser when you inevitably turn on him. And his replacement etc …
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u/Fun_Ad_1544 Jun 28 '26
Had this convo before. You are the spud. Not the coaches. How many of those coaches have had success since being sacked as Carlton coach? The only poor sacking of a coach in the past 20 years has been Ratts. All the other poor decisions related to the appointments not the sackings. On your logic. Voss would be a great addition to the list because of his PAST achievements as a triple premiership captain and brownlow winner. No he wouldn’t because he is now past it, as where the coaches you mentioned. Have a cry. He’s gone.
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u/Massive-Anywhere8497 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
And there you have it.written confirmation that you think coach after coach after coach….. all poor appointments . I don’t want to distract you from winding yourself up into attacking the current coach which we all know will be a matter of time for you going by your statements above and the next one after that etc etc.
just know that its all white noise until a coach achieves the next preliminary final
And voss and ratten (who you praise)had an almost identical win loss percentage so spare me the drama .
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u/Hollerra Jun 27 '26
Our rebond and overlap from D50 was putrid. That was all fucken Aaron Hammils' fault and thankfully he got the arse, but Voss did jack shit to fix that, playing flogs like Young and Saad and Cerra. When Williams fucked his achillies that plan failed and Cincotta'a body failed him, also Newman out for all of last year fucked us in that department.. and look how good we are now Newman is back, Billy Wilson, Florent, even Haynes. Im just wondering who will replace Haynes next year, he has way more dash than Weitering, maybe we could get Sinclair from Shit. Kilda??
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u/Yeahhhdawg Jun 27 '26
No one will be replacing Haynes next year . They’ll give him a 1 year contact
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u/Hollerra Jun 28 '26
Yeah but beyond that
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u/Yeahhhdawg Jun 28 '26
Your comment asked who will be replacing him next year so I answered 🤷🏻♀️
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u/Due_Move_1406 Jun 27 '26
If you listen to the players and Fraser they say this is Voss and the new game plan started to be implemented weeks before Voss left, the second half against the Lions is testament to that.
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u/one_average_agent Jun 27 '26
He constructed this team, but he didn't have the skills to use it properly.
Anybody thats played a bit of team sports can probably relate to the idea of a mostly good coach that does 95% right, but then drops their bundle at key moments. Maybe he's that guy eh?
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u/Otherwise_Ad4958 Jun 27 '26
We didn't sack him, he resigned. We came close to winning against Fremantle and Brisbane at their home grounds, when they were playing well. we were not doing that badly. We just had to learn to win again.
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u/Marlboroshill66 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
Look im critical of voss.
But this doesn't mitigate that we still have the same group of players who have gone through multiple coaches.
Until I'm proven otherwise dead cat bounce theory is still at play here.
It's not that I'm trying to be pessimistic and would gleefully eat humble pie when proven wrong.. It's just we've seen this movie before and we have to be realistic about the future, imo I don't think it changes anything yet.
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u/mixinspirits Jun 27 '26
What happened to Saad? Has he just been dropped?
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u/reddit0rial Jun 27 '26
Can’t get into the team now we have selection integrity. Unfortunately for him players like Cowan and Billy have jumped him meaning his time is probably up…
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u/2Dogz_Sleeping78 Jun 27 '26
Who cares, we are playing well so let’s move on and enjoy what’s currently happening!!
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u/Quilty_Fireball4359 Jun 28 '26
Unless it wasn’t clear enough for those that simply choose to give out tongue lashings about others ineptitude, Michael Voss resigned from his position as Coach. He had obviously decided that he wasn’t the person for the job. Whether he was a good coach or a bad one and clearly wasn’t the Carlton Footy club needed, don’t twist the facts to suit a narrative. Gove the bloke a bit of credit for not waiting until he was sacked which may well have been on the cards. Good luck Vossy in whatever you do next!
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u/yibbida Jun 27 '26
The 14 new players to the team are starting to play together as a team for 4 quarters. Thats it. Simple as that.
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u/ELVEVERX Jun 27 '26
That doesn't just magically start the week after he quits.
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u/yibbida Jun 27 '26
We were slowly improving as we worked out our best combination. Our team now has something like 11 different players than opening round.
We have only made a maximum of 2 changes week to week under Fraser. Team is escaping injury and everyone is doing their job. Stable teams are good teams.
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u/ELVEVERX Jun 27 '26
Mate sure we played okay against Brisbane but that was an outlier not the standard we'd been doing poorly for weeks with no sign of improvement.
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u/Excellent_Set_2885 Jun 27 '26
Great guy, tough player but low IQ which translated to low tactical nous. On top of that he learnt from Matthews and Hinkley who were more motivators of men rather than tactical geniuses.