AFL 2022: Carlton coach Michael Voss hopes Charlie Curnow’s six-year deal helps momentum ahead of clash with Collingwood

Carlton has to beat Collingwood on Sunday to play AFL finals and a superstar’s new deal could be the perfect tonic to fire them up.

Carlton coach Michael Voss is hoping the “investment” from superstar forward Charlie Curnow could help provide an extra kick for his team ahead of the club’s most important home and away fixture in years.

Curnow signed a monster-six year contract extension this week and Voss said the excitement of talking to the Coleman Medal leader gave him every indication the importance of beating Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday, to secure a first finals berth in 13 years, was not lost on the players.

Beyond that, Voss also took away an unstated enthusiasm for other players in the emerging Carlton group to “stay together” and build on their exciting upward trajectory.

“Talking to him yesterday when it was confirmed, what stood out was the excitement he had about the journey we are on,” Voss said on Friday.

“And he’s pretty determined to see it through with this group.

“They are effectively a group that is growing together and they are pretty determined to stay together.

“It’s particularly pleasing and nice to be able to have it for the last round. Hopefully, it generates a bit of momentum for us.”

BREAKING NEWS: Charlie has found the golden ticket! 🎫

— Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) August 18, 2022

The magnitude of the game, with the MCG already sold out, a finals spot at stake for the Blues and potential top-two finish for the Magpies, is not lost on Voss.

But he hasn’t been moved to ram that message home to his players, knowing there was enough external noise for them to endure while trying to maintain their focus.

“There’s a lot of speculation, conversations that happen around you,” he said.

“But our job is to focus on the job at hand and be really excited by what’s going on around us and what it all means and what could happen on the back of that but at the same time put composure around that.”

Voss was adamant that losing, and not making finals, would not make the season a failure despite storming to a 10-4 record by round 15. Carlton then lost four of the next six games, including the past three in a row.

“We’ve achieved a lot throughout the year and coming into a game I don’t tend to think about what next week looks like,” he said.

“Right throughout the season we have seen plenty of things that we should be pleased with our progression.

Patrick Cripps and Michael Voss embrace after last week’s loss to Melbourne. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

“But at the same time, we feel like we want to get better and we have to find ways to do that. We are really excited to see this thing through.”

Voss backed the fitness of Zac Williams to get through what could be a finals-like game despite the defender having not played at any level since round 9.

“He’s had a good month when he has been out on the training track and got all the loads in,” Voss said.

“The good thing about the modern environment is we track them pretty closely and there’s not a metre missed in terms of how they prepare themselves and he’s been fantastic.

“He’ll be a great inclusion for us.”