Michael Voss often speaks about standards and habits. Right now, the Carlton coach’s team are habitual dwindlers. It’s on the whiteboard of every opposition coach. It’s in the marrow of every Blues player and supporter. And it goes back a long way. Voss won eight of his first 10 games at Carlton. But of those wins, one was by three points after being 50 points up against Port Adelaide. They won by a point against Hawthorn after leading by seven goals. From then on, every significant loss of his tenure has seen the Blues squander large leads. They were four goals up at the final break before Collingwood “closed like the Grim Reaper” in 2022. They led by five goals in the first quarter of the 2023 preliminary final against Brisbane. They were 39 points ahead in the first quarter of the GWS clash in 2024, a loss the club has never recovered from. They were 41 points up against a bunch of Richmond kids last year. And they surrendered a 43-point lead to Melbourne on Sunday.
When teams keep losing like this, there is talk of effort, fitness and psychology. One talkback caller this week said they needed an exorcism. But Carlton’s problems are not just above the shoulders. A lot of it comes down to the way they play and the way they’re coached. Despite some tinkering around the edges, the Blues still prioritise a bulldozing brand of football. But playing like that is labour intensive, and difficult to maintain for more than a half. It’s impossible to maintain for months on end. It’s easy to scout and manipulate. And it’s not how good teams are playing in 2026.
Voss said his main focus this year was on “bringing energy”. But they have brought energy for as long as he’s been coach. Energy is great for a six-goal burst, a 30-minute sugar hit. And Carlton often bring it early in games. You see it in the way they tackle, chase and celebrate goals. It’s reflected in the nebulous “pressure rating” and the more definitive scoreboard.
But there comes a moment in every game where energy gives way to reality.
There comes a moment where the opposition coach is furiously flipping magnets and Voss is down on the boundary line with his arms folded – an observer, not an initiator. There comes a moment that calls for tactical shifts and structural adjustments. And for too long, Carlton have been unable to meet those moments. There was a brief patch on Sunday where the Blues took a deep breath and slowed the tempo against the Demons. They got a goal out of it. And it lasted about 90 seconds.
When Blues boss Graham Wright stuck with Voss last year, it was a surprise. Wright was renowned for his shrewd and tough calls. He sacked Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley as respectfully as possible. At first, his appointment of Craig McRae seemed like a strange one. Every Magpies coach had been a larger-than-life-figure – either a champion of the club or a premiership coach elsewhere. McRae didn’t seem like a natural frontman of a large and loud club. How wrong we were.
Backing in Voss was another way of saying, “This isn’t the Carlton of Jack Elliott and Wes Lofts.” And that’s great. But Wright was clearly seeing things we weren’t. He was seeing the way Voss coped with stress and his unflinching optimism. We were simply watching them play. A few days later, Carlton went out and lost in precisely the same way they’d been losing all year. “Contest and effort is still the primary part of what we need to bring every single week,” Voss said.
Rohan Connolly wrote a piece this week cautioning against a rash decision, especially after the club went to great lengths to put the right structures around the senior coach. And he’s right. Sacking Voss and installing a locum at this point of the season, when we’re a few days on from a Sheffield Shield final, would be madness. But that doesn’t mean the decision to retain him in the first place was the correct one. And it drums home how Voss, more than any football coach I can remember, has been given every possible chance to succeed. In terms of draft picks, media coverage and club support, he couldn’t have asked for more.
Right now, the people running Carlton have a lot to grapple with. They have a demoralised supporter base. They have a fixture that includes double ups against Brisbane, the Western Bulldogs, Collingwood and Fremantle. They have a team that keeps playing and losing the same way. They have a coach who keeps saying the same things. And they have the growing realisation that their decision to back Voss – a decision that was data driven, unswayed by public opinion and the antitheses of how Carlton has operated for half a century – was the wrong one. And that they’ve backed the wrong horse.
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