AFL Finals 2023: Brisbane‘s favourite son Michael Voss returns to the Gabba as the enemy

When he was sacked in 2013, Michael Voss ‘didn’t know how to feel’. Brisbane had let its favourite son go. Now, 10 years later, the premiership hero returns as the enemy. This is the story.

The favourite son.

The inaugural club legend.

The best there ever was.

Michael Voss is all of those things and more to the Brisbane Lions faithful.

But on Saturday he is the enemy. The man standing between his former club and its first grand final since 2004.

Brisbane’s triple-premiership captain will march a sea of Navy Blue into the Gabba intent on tearing out the heart of those who for so many years adored him.

That still adore him.

For some, that allegiance was lost the moment he pulled on a different club’s colours.

Just ask Damien Hardwick of the phenomenon. After 13 years of service and three flags, the former Richmond coach has been shunned by factions of the Tigers’ faithful following his resignation and subsequent defection to the Gold Coast Suns.

Michael Voss is a triple-premiership hero at Brisbane. Picture: Patrick Hamilton

Voss’ former mentor Leigh Matthews says it’s simply part and parcel of the football industry.

“When ‘Vossy’ played for the Lions, the Lions were the centre of his existence,” the triple-premiership Brisbane coach said.

“Now he’s involved with Carlton and Carlton is the centre of his existence. That’s the way it works, when you go from club to club. But people can’t quite understand that.

“What Vossy would have is some great memories of his time at the Lions, but that has absolutely no bearing on the game.”

Where some fans might find umbrage is that Voss is not simply a past player returned.

His is the long shadow cast over every player that pulls on a Lions jumper from now to eternity.

The man who Brisbane’s would-be modern day greats will always be measured.

His name graces club record books and honour boards.

The oval Chris Fagan’s Lions train on at Springfield is named in his honour.

Yes, Michael Voss Oval is where Brisbane’s preliminary final preparations took place. One of the team’s training drills is titled, ‘Voss’.

At Tuesday’s open session, there were even a few Voss jerseys kicking around in the crowd.

The Carlton coach’s legacy permeates his former club.

“It depends how far back you want to go of course, but if you talk about the Brisbane Lions it’s fair to say Vossy is the top of the tree and most of his teammates probably think that too,” Matthews decreed.

Installed as Matthews’ successor at Brisbane in 2009, Voss led the Lions to finals in his first season as coach but was cast aside by the club at the end of 2013 following four losing campaigns.

Then-chairman Angus Johnson was booed by sections of the crowd at a club function when he announced the Voss sacking, which shocked the AFL.

In the immediate fallout, Voss conceded he “didn’t know how to feel”.

The Lions trained at Michael Voss Oval ahead of the preliminary final.

Voss in action during the 2002 grand final.

“He’s a proud man. It would have hurt,” former teammate Alastair Lynch said of Voss’ mindset.

“He got an opportunity to coach his club early. He hadn’t coached before and the way it panned out would have been very disappointing.

“To his credit he had a break, went into the media, made a great fist of that and then decided to go and learn and rebuild.

“He spent time at Port Adelaide through a relatively successful period when that club was winning plenty of games and he was there assisting Ken Hinkley until he had the opportunity (to be a senior coach) again.

“The fact he was prepared to go back and have another crack at it is another reflection of how competitive he is and how prepared he was to do the hard yards over a number of years.

“To take the family to Adelaide … it’s a big investment to uproot your family, take young kids to a different state and start again. But he was prepared to do that because his competitive nature wasn’t being fulfilled in the media.”

Those close to Voss say he holds no grudges with the club, only that he felt let down by a select few who were involved during those years.

It did not dampen his love for his former teammates. He still joined them at the 2002 premiership reunion in Melbourne last year.

Voss after being sacked by Brisbane in 2013. Picture: Bradley Kanaris

But he did politely decline an invitation to the Lions’ Hall of Fame dinner late last month.

A swathe of former teammates turned coaches – Chris Scott, Craig McRae, Nigel Lappin, Justin Leppitsch, Blake Caracella and Luke Power – gathered in Brisbane for the evening, which doubled as a 2003 premiership reunion.

Voss chose to support his Carlton players at the All-Australian awards night which ran concurrently in Melbourne. He did not feel comfortable attending a rival club’s function, particularly while Carlton was still in finals contention alongside the Lions.

“Lions supporters should be proud that one of their own is doing such a great job with Carlton,” Lynch said.

“Voss has enormous respect for the Lions … but why he’s so successful is partly because he’s such a competitor. He’s only a Carlton man this weekend.

“There’s no soft spot for Brisbane. He wants to win it for Carlton, which is his club at the moment.

“He’s a very driven, competitive man who down the track will reflect again on his old club but he’s 100 perfect all-in for Carlton right now.”

The Blues faithful are very happy with their leader. Picture: Michael Klein.

How the Blues boss has engineered his club’s revival this season has been extraordinary.

In June, the fans were baying for his blood. Now they’re singing songs with his name down Lygon Street.

Carlton has won 12 of its past 13 matches to storm into the most unlikely of preliminary finals and the playing group has been moulded in its coach’s image.

Tough. Unrelenting. Refusing to be beaten.

They showed it against Gold Coast in round 23 when a win meant securing a maiden finals berth in 10 years, then proved it again and again in hard-fought finals victories over Sydney and Melbourne.

“I can only talk about him as the captain of the Lions when I was coaching them,” Matthews said.

“He had great competitive instincts. The ability to handle pressure and be motivated and lifted by pressure, rather than shrinking to it.

“What he did, what he said, what he got was the respect of his teammates. Back in the Lions days, that enabled people to want to follow him because they trusted and respected his competitive instincts.”

This week Voss declared he would return to Brisbane “a Carlton person”. It’s a back to the future moment for the Traralgon-born boy, who grew up with a Navy Blue scarf around his neck.

It might be a tough pill for Brisbane fans to swallow, but the fierce face of their three-peat years has moved on.

Originally published as AFL Finals 2023: Brisbane‘s favourite son Michael Voss returns to the Gabba as the enemy