Michael Voss has the look and feel of a man that is currently being tortured by his dream. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He looks like Fabio Wardley right at the end of his war with Danny Dubois, where he knew that his dream of being the champ was probably dead this time, but he\u2019d still swing a few haymakers just in case a miracle happens<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He knows it\u2019s a matter of when not if he\u2019s given his marching orders, but he still has his boys fighting on grimly while they\u2019re in his charge.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday night, once again, they were competitive and carried a never say die attitude right the way into their death.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n That deep, genuine competitive spirit has pervaded Voss\u2019 time at Carlon. And that fact that his charges haven\u2019t let that slip even as they\u2019ve slipped out of premiership contention and into a meme is a credit to Voss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the biggest complicating factor of his legacy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Over their last three coaches, the on-field Carlton product has reflected the man in charge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Under Brendan Bolton, they were bookish, defensive, and lacked toughness and hard- bitten competitiveness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When the Teague Train took over as the interim coach then eventually as the full-time man, they were undisciplined and occasionally exciting but often, again, uncompetitive and soft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Under Voss, the Blues have played like the man in charge used to. They\u2019ve been hard and uncompromising. They\u2019ve been hyper-competitive and have carried themselves like prizefighters at times, looking to drag opposition teams into deep water and drown them with experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And all that doggedness and fight hasn\u2019t just been for respectability. He\u2019s delivered unparalleled results in Carlton\u2019s recent history. The Blues had three straight 10+ win seasons for the first time 2011-2013 between 2022-2024. He also, crucially, delivered Carlton their first finals victory since 2013 and their first preliminary final since 2000.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n But more than any of that, he gave Blues fans hope. He gave them an identity that they could believe in. Voss and the captain Patrick Cripps have imbued the footy club with a level of doggedness that Blues fans would have killed John Elliott for when Bolton was in charge.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n To underline the point, from 2022-2025 the Blues were worse than second in contested ball differential. This year is the nadir of that stat under Voss. They are fifth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They, like Voss, don\u2019t know how not to fight on the inside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That gift has also, as has been said so often, been their curse.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n When teams have taken the Blues outside, Carlton simply can\u2019t run with opposition teams. Many will lay that blame at the feet of Michael Voss, but it seems to me that he\u2019s done his job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Blues play like a Voss team, even as footy has moved away from the Voss model. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The man has butted up against the roof of his own ability and Carlton hasn\u2019t enabled or forced any growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Blues haven\u2019t put enough coaches around Voss, or enough good runners on the park as the game has changed, to get Carlton to at least keep up as opposition teams run away from them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Richmond under Damien Hardwick were reborn when Justin Leppitsch came aboard, bringing a level of Xs and Os excellence that Hardwick didn\u2019t quite have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Carlton never did the same for Voss. They and Voss raged against the dying of their game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019s been like Jack Torrance in The Shining<\/em>.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Carlton footy club probably had about as much bad juju as The Overlook did when Voss walked in. While no father has killed his kids there, the ghosts of a million once promising careers are haunting the hallways.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Voss walked in, like Jack, thinking it was perfect for him. It was a circuit breaker. He had clean slate and a job to do. But as time went on, and he kept click clacking at that typewriter and getting nowhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He kept doing what he knew and it just didn\u2019t work, and there was no external structure there to save him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All work and no play has made Michael a confused boy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n