Carlton football department manager Chris Davies has guaranteed Michael Voss will coach the Blues against Adelaide on Thursday night, but has given an honest but damning critique of the team after yet another second-half fade-out.
Voss is fighting for his future after the Blues slipped to 1-3, having conceded a 22-point final quarter lead against North Melbourne on Good Friday to lose by 10 points. This follows squandering a 43-point lead to Melbourne last weekend and losing, while the Sydney Swans pummelled the Blues after half-time in opening round.
Off contract at the end of the season, Voss, in his fifth year in charge, has been unable to solve the Blues’ second-half issues which have plagued the team since the shock loss to Richmond in round one last year.
The Blues now return to Thursday night primetime against the Crows, Davies insisting on Saturday Voss will be in charge.
“I can. I absolutely can,” Davies, in his first year at Carlton after crossing from Port Adelaide, told 3AW.
“From the start of the year, we are 1-3. If we are taking any positives from those three losses, [it] is we have been in positions to win those games. But, as I say, [we’re] bitterly disappointed that we haven’t been able to get the job done, certainly in the last couple of weeks.”
Asked whether the Blues’ issues were to do with fitness, coaching or leadership, Davies opened up, declaring he would investigate.
“I think in these situations it’s never one thing, but it’s a mixture of all. I guess if you are getting into the Xs and Os of the game [defensive and offence tactics], we are very heavily reliant on our scores from stoppage,” he said.
“When we don’t get that right, which has been late in the game, our scoring has dried up because we haven’t been very good from a transition offence perspective and, in reality, when the game is going against us, teams are scoring far too easily. There are the Xs and Os. I would be certainly (be) willing to look into the other things you have mentioned.
“I don’t think it’s a fitness thing, but clearly it’s a mindset aspect to it. We would like our players communicating better than maybe they have. I think it’s a mixture of all those things. I am not too proud to say I am willing to look into all those things.”
Davies said the players needed to communicate better when the contest was on the line.
“This is where the gap in the competition can be sometimes. You have got a relatively inexperienced team. When the pressure comes on, one of the first things that goes when your team is not going very well is communication,” he said.
“If you have been watching our games, we have been scored heavily against and that’s a critical issue when those things occur. ”
The Blues are ranked ninth for average age (25.8 years) and eighth for average games played (98.6).
Second-half capitulations have been a theme for the past year, the Blues letting slip nine half-time leads in this period to lose.
Voss’ gameplan has typically been based on winning contest and stoppages, but the best teams are now excellent transition sides, moving the ball slickly and hitting targets, and then folding back to defend when required.
While Voss said on Friday he did not feel his players had been spooked in the final term against the Kangaroos, Davies’ comments suggest otherwise, as did those of Adam Simpson, the former West Coast premiership coach and now Blues’ consultant, who said the Blues had choked.
Davies conceded Blues’ supporters were not witnessing the improvement they expected.
“I mean, unfortunately, I am not in a position, and I certainly wouldn’t want to be telling our supporters how they should feel,” Davies said.
“The reality is, they should be seeing some progress on the field, and I accept right now, we haven’t been good enough to show enough of that so far this year. It doesn’t mean that we can’t get better at it, but clearly I want our group to get better at that very quickly.”
Blues president Rob Priestley and chief executive Graham Wright have said they expect the Blues to be in the running for the top 10, and Voss’ future will be determined by a range of markers. But with Adelaide, Collingwood (also on Thursday-night primetime), Fremantle, St Kilda, Brisbane and the Western Bulldogs to come, the Blues could be out of the running for the expanded final period by the mid-point of the season.
Former Blues co-captain Sam Docherty said it would be a mistake to sack Voss at this point of the season.
“I just don’t think you can make a move on a coach at this time of the year. I think it would be a really poor decision,” Docherty said on 3AW.
“They didn’t back him in fully and give him an extension, but they backed him in to see out this year of footy.”
He said the Blues were beaten in contest and clearance, and failed to handle the pressure. He said the Blues too often opted for safe long kicks down the line and were not “bold”, the Kangaroos booting seven goals in the final quarter, having booted seven for the entire match to that point. The Blues managed only two goals in the final term.
Simpson, who spends a day a week working with Voss, including on how he handles his press conferences, insisted on Saturday the Blues were in a “good spot” culture wise. But he said the final-quarter dramas were a major issue, but he wasn’t sure whether it was a structural or talent problem.
“There’s some clear issues there, and there are clubs going through this at the moment. There’s definitely some issues to work through, and I totally understand why there would be pressure,” Simpson told SEN.
In what could be construed as a damning indictment of the Blues, Simpson said young Kangaroos midfielder George Wardlaw “was the toughest bloke on the field” on Friday.
“I just thought they [Carlton] got beaten at their own game. I thought they got beaten around the ball in the contest, and clearances were 15 to 10 in the last quarter,” Simpson said.
“What I did see pretty clearly is a bit of panic, you know, with a surge kick, and it was a handball, or a kick that just got smothered, and just the inevitable sort of was happening, wasn’t it? So, a bit of mental demons that would have been running through their head no doubt after one, [Jacob] Weitering going down and two, just the momentum shift around the contest.”
Weitering was concussed in the third term after a knee to the back of the head. He spent time in hospital after the match but returned home. He will miss at least the clash against the Crows.
If the Blues do move on Voss, Simpson is expected to be a contender for the top role.
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Jon Pierik is a sports journalist at The Age. He covers AFL and has won awards for his cricket and basketball writing.Connect via X or email.
