Mick McGuane: Why Liam Jones needs to explain his decision to refuse Covid vaccine

So many questions remain around Liam Jones’ decision to retire, but his Blues departure might not be as damaging defensively as most predict, Mick McGuane writes.

Would more people sympathise with Liam Jones if he explained his vaccine stance? Picture: Ian Currie

C’mon Liam, please educate us about your decision.

While I always respect an individual’s rights to privacy, in this case, it would benefit everyone if you explained the reasons behind your shock retirement.

If not getting vaccinated is because of a health issue or a cultural one, then tell us so then everyone will have a greater understanding.

The general public, football lovers and the Carlton faithful who have been to hell and back would be a lot more sympathetic if they understood the entire situation.

At the moment there are so many questions. If it is to do with indigenous culture then why are your teammates Jack Martin and Zac Williams conforming to the AFL rules requiring COVID vaccination?

And would you have taken this stance if you were 20 rather than 30 with just one more year of a contract remaining?

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In some people’s eyes silence is golden but, in this case, when you’re in the minority given all your fellow colleagues around the competition — over 700 players have got the vaccination, some with concerns like you — it would help so many if there was an explanation.

And this is not just a football decision, the impact it will have in the short term on your life is significant.

Would more people sympathise with Liam Jones if he explained his vaccine stance? Picture: Ian Currie

Whether we like it or not our respective governments have made some pretty strict rules regarding vaccinations and the reality is that the majority of employers require double jabs for their employees.

So what does Jones’ surprise departure mean for new coach Michael Voss?

I’m not as concerned as some because I think Voss was already going to change the way the Blues play defensively.

Remember back in 2010 when Gary Ablett left Geelong. The world was supposed to end at Kardinia Park, instead they got another soldier in and went on and won the premiership the following year.

Liam Jones is no Gary Ablett so this forecast of doom and gloom is over the top.

Naturally, Voss would be disappointed that he will be starting his second crack at being a senior coach without one of his key defensive pillars who had become one of the league’s elite intercept markers.

Michael Voss just got a very surprising curve ball. Picture: Tony Gough

This will now ramp up the urgency for Carlton to structurally work on their team defence. Players that don’t conform to their role without the ball won’t survive team selection and nor should they considering what we witnessed in 2021.

Selection integrity will be front of mind and this cannot be compromised if the Blues intend to make inroads into the competition next year. Voss has been at Port Adelaide for the past seven seasons so he will bring a lot of Power to the Blues which will see them be more aggressive with their defensive structure.

They will defend higher up the ground and be more assertive with their field position. This does rely on being able to lock the ball into your own forward half which is something the new coach will also be focusing on.

Carlton has lost a key pillar of its backline with Liam Jones’ retirement.

Jones’ exit puts more pressure on the Blues midfield to become significantly better defensively.

The problem for Voss is that Carlton haven’t been playing for each other as there is minimal pressure around the source which makes life so hard for its defence.

There are too many walkers out of stoppages wearing navy blue. Their inability to “snap” into a defensive mindset hurts the team far too regularly. The standards you walk past are the standards you accept. That has to change under Voss.

Captain Patrick Cripps is the poster boy for this. He is a brilliant first possession winner, a great inside tough player but he doesn’t have the right balance when it comes to defensive transition.

Williams was tried in the midfield last year because that’s where he’d stated he wanted to play but didn’t have the fitness base to be able to run both ways.

The pressure builds on Patrick Cripps. Picture: Michael Klein

Too many teams were able to get out of stoppages too easily and then with unpressured ball use hit up their forwards which made it too hard for the Carlton defence.

There are several candidates for the second tall defender spot with the recruitment of young Western Bulldogs Lewis Young looking more fortuitous by the day.

He is a chance to help out there while ex-Demon Oscar McDonald has experience in the role with Caleb Marchback, Lachie Plowman and Brodie Kemp possible options.

The Blues were already going to be an interesting watch over the summer and that’s just gone up a notch with Jones’ departure, something which unfortunately will remain a mystery for the foreseeable future.

Shock Jones call upends Blues’ finals plans

—Scott Gullan

Michael Voss probably thought he’d seen everything throughout his three decades in the game as a superstar player and coach.

Playing with Jason Akermanis pretty much ensures not too many things would surprise but even that vast experience wouldn’t have prepared him for the events of the past week.

Six weeks ago when Voss landed the Carlton coaching gig, his excitement about what he was taking over was centred around the team’s key pillars.

Every coach will tell you, if you can nail down the spine then everything flows from that.

And while the Blues had obviously underperformed over the past couple of years, what they did have was one of the more exciting spines in the game - Liam Jones, Jacob Weitering, Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay.

With Jones out the door, how do the Blues replace him? Picture: Michael Klein

Voss’ biggest concern with his big four would have centred around Curnow and whether he can finally get back on the park after two injury ravaged seasons.

He wouldn’t have given Jones a second thought until a week ago.

That was when word filtered out that the Blues key defender was vaccine hesitant and seriously considering his future given the AFL’s no-jab no-play rule.

On Sunday Voss’ second coming as a senior coach took a hit he wouldn’t have seen coming.

Jones decided to walk away from the game and a $500,000 contract for next season and potentially more after that because of his unwillingness to be vaccinated.

He has his reasons which he wants to remain private and no-one can question any of that but the impact of his actions is set to be dramatic on his football club.

Many were predicting the Blues to spike quickly under Voss given Curnow’s expected return, the improvement of Adam Saad and Zac Williams in their second year in the navy blue and the recruitment of Fremantle young gun Adam Cerra and handy Swan George Hewitt.

A finals spot next year with potential to put themselves in a premiership window inside three years given the spread of elite developing talent.

That is all put on hold now because of Jones’ departure.

That’s not something that would have been said about the former Western Bulldogs forward for two-thirds of his 161-game career but the stunning improvement when he was switched to defence midway through 2017 has been one of the best feel good stories in the AFL.

Suddenly the much-maligned error-riddled erratic forward became this intercept-marking machine whose athleticism made him one of the most dynamic defenders in the competition.

Every contending team has a Jones.

Melbourne won a flag with two in Jake Lever and Steven May, the Western Bulldogs have Alex Keath, Port Adelaide recruited Aliir Aliir for that role, Geelong’s Tom Stewart has two All-Australian jumpers for his intercept-marking excellence, Brisbane’s Harris Andrews is elite at it while West Coast’s Jeremy McGovern is one of the highest paid players in the competition because of this skill set.

Finding another Jones is going to take up a lot of Voss’ attention over the summer.

Former Demon Oscar McDonald has played as a second tall defender previously while there is also Caleb Marchbank and Brodie Kemp but maybe he has to pull the same trick which worked on Jones with Mitch McGovern.

He is a much maligned forward at his second club whose career is rapidly heading in the wrong direction. Sound familiar?