Frustration continues to grow among Carlton supporters after another disappointing loss under Michael Voss

Carlton president Luke Sayers responded to last week’s stinging criticism before the game against the Bulldogs – and it didn’t go down well. Here’s what another loss means.

Michael Voss and Luke Sayers.

Hopefully Michael Voss stayed off social media on Saturday night.

The Carlton masses are angry and after the Blues faded late against the Western Bulldogs they channelled their frustration squarely at the senior coach.

Voss – who is in the Australian Football Hall of Fame – is a giant of the game.

But Carlton supporters have not seen their team play in a preliminary final since the champion midfielder won his first AFL premiership 22 years ago and so their patience is wearing thin regardless of what Voss achieved on the grass.

Carlton president Luke Sayers is on social media. But the big boss wouldn’t have enjoyed the direct feedback he received following the club’s fourth loss in five games.

If this week showed one thing, it’s that no other club evokes such emotion, such passion, such deep connection. Let’s bring all that and more to Marvel tomorrow night ‘Baggers. Get the joint rocking bring that energy on and off the field embrace it.Expectation is a privilege 💪💙

— Luke Sayers AM (@LukeSayers) May 12, 2023

After the Herald Sun reported that club powerbrokers had no faith in Sayers or his board, he tweeted: “If this week showed one thing, it’s that no other club evokes such emotion, such passion, such deep connections … Expectation is a privilege”.

That tweet became swamped with replies from long-term members threatening to tear up their tickets after the 20-point defeat at Marvel Stadium.

Carlton president Luke Sayers pats Nic Newman after the loss to the Western Bulldogs. Picture: Michael Klein

Three crucial decisions from Sayers were thrown into the spotlight on Friday;

1) Retaining football boss Brad Lloyd after the 2021 review that ended David Teague’s coaching career;

2) Hiring chief executive Brian Cook and;

3) Appointing Voss over Ross Lyon.

The Blues are under siege from the top down and Voss conceded that last week’s stinging criticism was impossible to ignore.

“It’s hard not to (listen to it) when it’s surrounding you,” he said.

“But for us the answer is not looking external, it’s looking internal. What we get to be able to control is what we do and how we train and how we turn up and how we get better and how we execute in those moments.

“For us it’s eyes down, it’s eyes in and we’ve got to go again.”

Matt Cottrell handballs as Marcus Bontempelli closes in.

Forget the sliding doors moment where the Blues’ board scared away Lyon … another question posed in last week’s explosive interviews was whether the Blues had actually made progress since Teague was in charge.

While Charlie Curnow has played in all 30 games Voss has coached, he was available for just seven games under Teague, who also did not have access to the likes of Adam Cerra, George Hewett or Blake Acres.

Yet Carlton’s record under Teague and Voss is similar.

The Blues won eight games in Teague’s final season and they have eight wins and a draw from their past 21 games under Voss.

They’ve beaten GWS twice, West Coast twice, Essendon and Fremantle (Marvel Stadium) last year and North Melbourne and a slow-starting Geelong that was stuck in first gear this year.

They’ve kicked 100 points three times in 21 games … twice against the Eagles and once against the Roos.

The frustration in the outer has long been a constant, it has just taken on different forms.

For example, rewind a decade and it was over recruiting.

Between 2009-2014 the Blues used top-30 picks on Kane Lucas (No.12), Matthew Watson (No.18), Josh Bootsma (No.22), Troy Menzel (No.11), Patrick Cripps (No.13), Blaine Boekhorst (No.19) and Dillon Viojo-Rainbow (No.28).

Clearly, Cripps was an inspired selection. The others never really took flight.

Michael Voss is under pressure. Picture: Michael Klein

In 2023 the issue for supporters is skill errors and ball movement. For billionaire powerbroker Bruce Mathieson, whose nephew is on Sayers’ board, it starts with Sayers and his board.

Mathieson feared Voss would be “slaughtered because the Carlton board is so weak”.

But Voss found positives in the fightback on a Saturday night where the Dogs flooded back defensively to turn it into a dogfight.

“I felt like we walked out of the game with more moments that looked like us,” Voss said.

“We’ve been working pretty hard over the course of the last month to get that, but it still shows that we’ve got a bit of work to do.”

Voss described his first game as Carlton coach as a “signature win for the club”.

His midfield bulls won every centre clearance in the final quarter to blow Richmond away in last year’s season-opener.

The signature moment of Voss’ playing career was arguably bouncing back from a brutal Scott Burns bump to set up a goal against Collingwood in the 2002 grand final.

Back against the Magpies next week, who are coached by his old premiership teammate in Craig McRae, Voss will be hoping for another signature performance against Collingwood at the MCG.

The sort of performance that Blues fans thought they were signing up for this season.