Voss in a quest to lift Blues
NEW Carlton coach Michael Voss says he won’t put a “cap” on what the Blues can achieve next year as he seeks to implement a stronger contestbased and defensively-minded game plan.
The three-time Brisbane premiership captain and former Lions coach was unveiled as the Blues new leader on Thursday after beating Adam Kingsley and Daniel Giansiracusa in the race for the job.
Voss went through the interview process with Carlton in its search for a new coach in 2019 and missed out but said he had no hesitation throwing his hat in the ring for a “thorough” interview process again this year to coach the club he supported as a child.
Voss conducted a Zoom meeting with Carlton players yesterday morning before fronting a press conference alongside incoming Carlton chief executive Brian Cook and new president Luke Sayers.
The Blues have made clear expectations that they aim to play finals next year, which Voss said he would embrace.
“I think it’s largely important not to cap where we want to be,” Voss said.
“In my time here and being able to go through this process, there’s obviously some talent here and that’s one of the really exciting parts of being able to coach this football team.
“I won’t step away from embracing expectations. I understand we’ve got a really rich history of the Carlton Football Club, we’ve had some really great success as a football club and we’ll embrace those expectations. But hopefully we can also shift the narrative a little around how we can just play for a greater purpose, which becomes even bigger than the result itself.”
Voss coached Brisbane from 2009 to 2013 before joining Port Adelaide at the end of 2014 as an assistant coach under Ken Hinkley where he had a significant impact.
Eight years on from his axing at the Lions, Voss said he had learnt plenty since.
“I think some of those things are immeasurable,” he said.
“What I did know when I came out of the back of that was clearly I needed to get better and there’s a lot of things I needed to work on and that’s what I’ve spent the last eight years doing.
“I’ve been well and truly supported through that period of time but through it all you’re developing your own leadership skills, your relationships and how you build them, your communication. But it’s largely immeasurable and it’s been a fair length of time between that last job until now.”