Michael Voss makes ‘unusual' coaches box move, ‘horrible' Carlton leaves him on the brink

Daily Telegraph

a day ago

Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Michael Voss appeared to vacate his coaching duties in unusual scenes during Carlton's dismal 56-point loss to Collingwood at the MCG on Friday night.
Collingwood were several classes above the Blues as the Pies claimed a 17.13 (115) to 8.11 (59) victory, their eighth win in a row.
FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer.
With Carlton's final hopes over, the question is now whether Voss can keep his job or if he will be sacked before he can even see out the season.
Early in the first quarter when Collingwood had kicked the first two goals of the game, Voss was spotted sitting on the stairs in Carlton's coaching box, away from the head coach's usual position at the row of desks.
'Michael Voss sitting in the aisle is an unusual choice,' Fox Footy commentator Gerard Whateley said.
Brownlow Medallist Dane Swan wrote on X: 'Voss surely can't see the whole ground sitting back row on the stairs against the wall. That is one strange spot for the head coach to be sitting.'
Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas said: 'Why is Vossy hiding in the back corner of the coaches box sitting on steps?'
ABC Radio commentator Ben Cameron said the scenes in the coaches box made Voss look 'impotent'.
Voss resumed his position in the coach's chair in the first half, but he could do little to stem the bleeding as Collingwood ran riot over Carlton.
Michael Voss was coaching from the stairs. Photo: Fox Footy.
From an optics point of view, coaching from the stairs suggested Voss might have already checked out of Carlton's horror season.
Buddy Franklin predicted Voss wouldn't see out the season and he may well be proven right, depending on the decision of Carlton boss Graham Wright.
Voss is contracted until the end of 2026 but after taking Carlton to a preliminary final in 2023, his side has stuttered and struggled to have a game plan.
'There was a sense of resignation, I thought, about this,' former Demons captain Garry Lyon said post-game on Fox Footy before vision was shown of incoming chief executive Wright in discussion with Blues powerbrokers in the rooms.
'They're in a situation where for the past three, four weeks they were the front-and-back-page story, and there was a stage there when Collingwood kicked eight goals in that third quarter and it looked like it was arguably going to be a 100-point (loss) and they were going to be (the story) again,' added Lyon.
'But in the end, I think it's kind of the result we expected coming in.'
Where to now for Carlton? (Photo by)
It was Carlton's 10th loss from 16 games this year as the Blues sit 11th on the ladder and 16 points behind eighth spot.
Carlton's skill level was particularly poor — nine Blues players had kicking efficiency of less than 50 per cent.
'They are what they are, and they are a horrible kicking football side. Horrible. And that goes from the top down,' Lyon said.
'Adam Cerra was butchering the footy today … if you want to be an A-grade footballer, or you want to survive long enough to have a career in footy, you can't kick in the manner that they kick.
'And that becomes a list analysis decision that they're going to have to make.'
Jordan Lewis added: 'It's a flow-on effect — how do you predict further afield if the kicks aren't hitting the target? You can't then make the next decision, so the flow-on effect is huge,' he said.
'I think the damning thing — the thing that we've shown time after time — is their midfield mix. They were just wiped off the park in terms of post-clearance stuff.
'They just can't spread, they can't link up, they can't kick, so there's so many parts of their game, at the moment, that aren't where they need to be to be a (good) AFL side.'
Voss was circumspect post-game, saying: 'It's pretty clear we need to have come pretty important conversations.
'We let our club down tonight. We want our supporters to be proud of us and we didn't do that tonight … we can't tolerate that. That was a really poor performance.'
For Collingwood, Nick Daicos had 36 disposals and a goal, and likely another three Brownlow votes, performance, as Collingwood boasted nine individual goalkickers. for the game.
The Magpies are 14 points clear on top of the AFL ladder midway through round 17.
Originally published as Michael Voss makes 'unusual' coaches box move, 'horrible' Carlton leaves him on the brink