Carlton’s Football Head Chris Davies Confirms Voss Will Coach, But Criticizes Team Performance
Carlton’s head of football, Chris Davies, has confirmed that Michael Voss will continue as the team’s coach for the upcoming match against Adelaide on Thursday night. However, he has also delivered a strong critique of the team following another second-half collapse.
Voss is under pressure after the Blues fell to 1-3 in the season, having lost a 22-point lead in the final quarter against North Melbourne on Good Friday. This came after they squandered a 43-point lead in their previous game and were beaten by the Swans after half-time in the opening round.
With his contract set to expire at the end of the season, Voss has struggled to address the recurring second-half issues that have plagued the team since their shocking loss to Richmond in round one last year. The Blues are now set to face the Crows in a Thursday night primetime clash, and Davies has assured fans that Voss will remain in charge for the Gather Round.
“I can [guarantee it]. I absolutely can,” Davies said, speaking to 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.”
When asked about the root causes of the team’s struggles—fitness, coaching, or leadership—Davies indicated that a thorough investigation would be conducted.
“I think in these situations it’s never one thing, but it’s a mixture of [it] all,” he explained. “I guess if you are getting into the Xs and Os of the game [the tactics], we are very heavily reliant on our scores from stoppage.”
“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.”
Davies’ assessment was spot on, with over 60 per cent of the Blues’ scores this season (seven goals per game) coming from stoppage—a league high. The Brisbane Lions are next best (45 per cent), while the league average is 37 per cent.
“I don’t think it’s a fitness thing, but clearly it’s a mindset aspect to it,” Davies admitted. “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 emphasized the need for better communication among players during critical moments in the game.
“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 recurring theme for the past year, with the team letting slip nine half-time leads in this period to lose.
Voss’ gameplan has typically focused on winning contests and stoppages, but the best teams are now excelling in transition play, moving the ball quickly and hitting targets off turnovers. The Blues are ranked last in scores from turnover.
While Voss claimed on Friday that his players hadn’t been spooked in the final term against the Kangaroos, Davies’ comments suggest otherwise. Former West Coast premiership coach Adam Simpson, who now serves as a consultant to the Blues, suggested the side had choked.
Davies acknowledged that Blues supporters were not seeing 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 expressed confidence that the team will be in the running for the top 10. However, with upcoming matches against Adelaide, Collingwood, Fremantle, St Kilda, the Brisbane Lions, and Western Bulldogs, the Blues could fall out of contention by the mid-point of the season.
Former Blues co-captain Sam Docherty argued that it would be a mistake to sack Voss at this stage 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.”
Docherty pointed out that the Blues were beaten in contest and clearance and failed to handle pressure. He also criticized the team for opting for safe, long kicks down the line instead of being bold. The Kangaroos managed seven goals in the final quarter after only seven for the entire match up to that point, while the Blues managed just two.
Simpson, who spends a day a week working with Voss, including on press conferences, insisted the Blues were in a “good spot” culture-wise. However, he acknowledged the final-quarter dramas as a major issue.
“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 seen as a damning comment on the Blues, Simpson noted that 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 suffered a concussion in the third term after an accidental knee to the back of the head by Zane Duursma. He spent time in hospital after the match but returned home. He will miss at least the clash against the Crows due to concussion protocols.
The Blues’ challenges extend beyond this match, with Will Hayward receiving a one-match ban for striking. Hayward hit Wardlaw across the stomach with an outstretched arm after the Roos midfielder disposed of the ball during the third quarter. The MRO graded the incident as intentional and medium impact.
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