Michael Voss’ season of misery continues as Brisbane hands Carlton a fourth consecutive loss
Michael Voss’ former club showed no mercy on Thursday night, delivering a seven-goal blitz that Carlton had no answer for – and one that highlighted the Blues’ woeful skill level.
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Michael Voss’ former club Brisbane piled additional misery onto the Carlton coach with a dominant 37-point victory over the Blues at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night.
Voss might’ve captained the Lions in three premierships a couple of decades ago, but Brisbane showed him no mercy, dismantling his side with ferocious pressure and superior ball use.
In the third quarter, Brisbane already had their 11 individual goalkickers, and led by 53 points in the last after booting seven goals in a row, before running out 15.13 (103) to 9.12 (66) winners.
Carlton have now lost their last four games in ignominious fashion, ensuring the pressure continues to intensify on Voss, despite the fact he is contracted until the end of next season.
But the under fire coach, who was the target of a ‘murder’ threat during the week, is adamant he isn’t feeling any extra external pressure, despite a fourth consecutive loss.
“The pressure only comes from my own expectations of how we want to play and being dialed in on how that looks for our players,” Voss said post-match.
“That’s the only pressure I feel.
“We’ve got a job to do and for the next six or seven weeks that’s what we are determined to do.”
The Blues’ turnovers and skill level, especially in defence, were downright atrocious at times – factors that were exacerbated by the Lions’ slick disposal and impressive running power.
Brisbane’s tackling ferocity, led by Dunkley who registered 13, stood out when the game was up for grabs. The AFL average is 11 tackles inside 50 per match, yet Brisbane already had 19 in the third quarter, and finished up winning that stat convincingly 20-8.
After only laying 36 tackles in total last week against Port Adelaide, much to coach Chris Fagan’s displeasure, Brisbane had 44 at half-time and finished with 69 for the match compared to Carlton’s 58. The Lions also comfortably won the territory battle and had 16 more inside 50s (61-45).
Dunkley was outstanding with 28 disposals (14 contested) as well, Lachie Neale starred with 31 touches (11), eight tackles and six clearances, Will Ashcroft was influential with 28 disposals and a goal, and Cam Rayner was huge too with 22 possessions and two goals.
The result saw the Lions tighten their grip on a top two spot, and strengthen their cause for a pair of home finals, but it appears to have come at a big cost with gun defender Noah Answerth seemingly suffering a serious Achilles injury early in the second quarter. Carlton’s Orazio Fantasia (hamstring) was also subbed out.
Tom De Going?
In the strongest sign yet that Carlton are resigned to losing in-demand ruckman Tom De Koning to St Kilda, Marc Pittonet was once again used mainly in the ruck, while De Koning spent the night predominantly up forward.
Unsurprisingly, De Koning’s dramatic form slump continued while being played out of position, and he copped the Bronx cheers and even some boos from Carlton fans when he took his first mark seconds before three-quarter time.
Mixed bag for Marc
Pittonet had a rollercoaster first half. He lit up the stadium after the quarter-time siren with a spectacular torpedo punt from well outside 50m for a remarkable goal. But shortly after, he got ahead of himself and was pinged holding the ball 50m out from Brisbane’s goal ambitiously trying to break the Ashcroft tackle. Ashcroft’s set shot lacked sufficient power and only just cleared the goal line, yet despite five Carlton players in the goal square, including Pittonet, nobody was on the goal line and able to get a finger on the ball. However, shortly after, Pittonet made amends with his second goal.
Curnow rut rolls on
Carlton forward Charlie Curnow’s lean patch continued and he has now gone goalless four matches in a row for the first time since early 2017 when he did so from his seventh to 10th career games. Thursday night was his 147th match and he has now managed just nine behinds since his last goal.
Lions hunt Blues
Perhaps the best example of Brisbane’s relentless pressure came late in the second quarter when first Rayner pinged Harry O’Farrell holding the ball and the loose pill ended up with Levi Ashcroft who kicked the easy from 15m out. And just a couple of minutes later, O’Farrell’s young teammate Matthew Carroll suffered the same fate in defence when he was mown down by Charlie Cameron who converted the set shot and put Brisbane up by 30 points.
Scoreboard
CARLTON 3.3, 6.6, 6.10, 9.12 (66)
BRISBANE 5.4, 11.6, 15.8, 15.13 (103)
RONNY LERNER’S BEST
Blues: Hewett, Cripps, Haynes, Weitering, Pittonet.
Lions: Dunkley, Neale, W.Ashcroft, Rayner, Zorko, Lester, Andrews.
GOALS
Blues: Pittonet 2, Fantasia, Williams, Cripps, Durdin, De Koning, Hewett, McGovern.
Lions: Cameron 3, Morris 2, Rayner 2, Berry, Hipwood, W.Ashcroft, McCluggage, L.Ashcroft, Lohmann, Bailey, Fort.
INJURIES Blues: Fantasia (hamstring), Docherty (cut cheek). Lions: Answerth (Achilles).
UMPIRES Fisher, O’Gorman, Heffernan, McGinness
32,898 at the Marvel Stadium
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
RONNY LERNER’S VOTES
3 Josh Dunkley (BL)
2 Lachie Neale (BL)
1 Will Ashcroft (BL)
VOSS: YOU’RE READING TOO MUCH INTO IT
– Jordan Pinto
Carlton coach Michael Voss has hit out at suggestions the Blues are planning for life without Tom De Koning by playing Marc Pittonet.
Voss, again, stressed there “is a need” for the out-of-contract star to play forward and that anyone thinking otherwise is “reading too much into it”.
The form slump of De Koning, who has been tipped to take up a mega free agency offer from St Kilda, continued with the 25-year-old receiving the Bronx cheer from the Carlton faithful after a quiet first half.
Pittonet shouldered most of the ruck duties and brought the house down in a different way, with his long-range bomb on the quarter-time siren giving Blues fans early hope.
“It’s pretty black and white to us, you are reading too much into it,” Voss said when questioned post-game.
“We need a role filled forward… there’s a need to have Tom there at the moment.
“Pitto is in good form, he deserves to be in the team.
“We don’t need to read into it too much more than that.”
Voss conceded De Koning was “a bit challenged” but was still confident his future remained in Navy Blue.
“Tom is very important to us, he’s grown at this football club,” he said.
“We would love to see him see out his career here, we are hoping that is the case.”
ANOTHER UMPIRE HIT – THIS TIME IT WAS COSTLY
Umpire contact has been placed firmly back on the agenda again this week, after another player collision occurred at Marvel Stadium.
But crucially, this time, it lead to a goal.
Early in the first quarter, Carlton backman Nick Haynes attempted to pass it to unattended teammate Lachie Cowan in the backline for an easy mark.
But umpire Andrew Heffernan obliviously ran backwards into the thick of the action and clashed heavily with Cowan.
From the resulting spillage, Brisbane star Cam Rayner mopped up and dished it off to Charlie Cameron who snapped truly from 20m out, much to the chagrin of the Blues faithful.
“I can see Adam Simpson and John Longmire saying ‘what is the umpire doing in the corridor where we want to take the footy?’,” David King said on Fox Footy.
“He’s in the way!
“He causes the clash and creates the turnover.
“It was going to be an easy mark to Cowan.
“All of a sudden it’s an easy goal to the Lions and they are hunting hard tonight.
“Carlton fans are not happy.”
The incident occurred just five days after Essendon coach Brad Scott blasted the umpires’ on-field positioning after his young charge Nate Caddy was involved in a similar clash against Gold Coast.
But Hawks great Jason Dunstall put the spotlight back on the players.
“They can’t be invisible umpires, they have to stand somewhere,” he said.
“Where do you want them all, outside the boundary line?
“They wear bright green… gee, we just got to be better at avoiding them.”
Originally published as Michael Voss’ season of misery continues as Brisbane hands Carlton a fourth consecutive loss
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