Assistant coach Michael Voss says he’s fully-committed to Port Adelaide in season 2020 despite speculation over interstate move
Despite interviewing with Carlton for its head coaching role last year, Michael Voss says he’s 100 per cent focused on the job at hand at Port Adelaide.
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Port Adelaide senior assistant coach Michael Voss says the Power are miles in front of where they were at the same stage of pre-season last year, and revealed a fascinating potential role change for Sam Powell-Pepper.
The Power players were subject to a gruelling three-hour session at Alberton on Monday, taking part in more match simulation and then subjected to gut-busting sprints after it.
Voss spoke after training, and these are The Advertiser’s five key take-outs from what he said.
FOCUSED ON PORT
Voss was constantly linked with a return to senior coaching in 2019, even flying to Melbourne to interview for the Carlton job.
But when asked about whether it could be a similar story in 2020, he said his focus was on Port’s pre-season.
“January, that’s a little early for that one so we might park that for another day, but no I think where your focus lies is 100 per cent on trying to get this right, so that doesn’t change for now,” he said.
“Way too early to be putting that on the agenda, I appreciate you asking me, but it would be fodder for now … talking about my coaching aspirations as opposed to Port Adelaide Football Club doesn’t feel right.”
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The three-time premiership-winning captain and Brownlow Medal winner knows what success looks and feels like, and he said he was starting to see “belief” among the Power players.
After a big shake-up in personnel and game-plan for 2019, Voss said Port was way ahead at this stage of pre-season as to where it was 12 months ago.
“We are at that phase where we are starting pretty heavy match simulation as opposed to last year, where we were introducing a lot of new concepts and still really working on what that structure looks like and the roles that players are going to play,” he said.
“We are a fair bit clearer on what that looks like now, it gives us a chance to get into a fair bit more detail than where we were (at the same stage of pre-season) last year.
“We feel well and truly more advanced.”
MIDFIELD MUSICAL CHAIRS
Port’s midfield was routinely panned in 2019, described as one-paced and slow as the Power again missed out on finals.
Voss said to fix this, they could have up to 11 players rotating through the middle of the ground.
“I think so (that they will get the pace in there), but we have to do it by numbers, it’s not going to be about three versus three that are in there,” he said.
“The big thing that we have going for us is that we have a lot of players who play forward that can actually go through the ball.
“But our diversity through that area to maintain that intensity over the course of a game is going to be needed, and we think we can do that through numbers as well.
“You might have mainstays (midfielders); the old way we looked at the game was you have your three, the ruck and one on the interchange … it runs a lot deeper now.”
Voss said young guns Connor Rozee and Zak Butters were ramping up their time in the middle of the ground during match simulation, while Karl Amon could get more inside minutes after impressing on the wing last year.
But don’t discount star Robbie Gray, who Voss said was moving well and had been a “game breaker” in the simulations this pre-season.
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Powell-Pepper was one of the players who was criticised for being too one-paced in the middle of the ground in 2019.
But Voss revealed that ‘Pep’ – who trained indoors on Monday – could be shifted forward and act as a wrecking ball for the Power inside attacking 50.
“We would like to think we can get him some more time forward and not just be a pressure forward, he had a lot of shots last year,” Voss said.
“He didn’t convert a lot, but anyone who is getting that amount of shots on goal deserves a look at that part of the ground.
“The ones who you value really highly in the game today are those players who can still find the footy in that forward 50 … he just manages to find it and what you don’t speak about with Pep is his work rate.
“So, you might see a slightly different role for him.
“Again, he’s a player who has been traditionally in the midfield, but he may end up spending some time forward (as well).”
DAN THE MIDFIELD MAN
One player who is set to be in the midfield is Dan Houston, after being pushed up the ground from his running back position for the second half of 2019.
After copping a knock to the knee last week, Houston was back on the training track and Voss said he had been one of the outstanding performers in the Power’s pre-season.
“I would have thought that’s our plan (Houston in midfield) going into the season,” he said.
“He got half the season last year where he played in the middle of the ground and he was asking a lot of questions … as a midfielder, it is a fair bit different to how a defender players.
“So, he has had a full pre-season uninterrupted as a midfielder and even today watching through some of the stoppages, his movement was really good, his poise outstanding, his kicking is outstanding and the more we can get the ball in his hands delivering to our forwards the better off I think we will be.”