Michael Voss says selfless attitude key to Blues’ revival

Carlton coach Michael Voss says a change in approach has put the Blues back on the right course as a luckless defender returns.

Carlton coach Michael Voss says the emphatic pre-bye victory over Gold Coast has given his side the blueprint for how to approach the rest of the season. Picture: Dylan Burns / Getty Images

Carlton coach Michael Voss says a focus on selflessness inspired the Blues’ long-awaited return to the winners’ list as they plan to snap the losing record of teams playing after their bye.

All eight sides playing after a bye against an opponent who played the previous week have lost this season, but Voss says there are “a lot of other factors” behind the defeats despite the stark trend.

The Blues’ 59-point drubbing of Gold Coast has them only 1½ games outside the top eight despite a torrid two-month period, and they have more reason to be buoyed after the successful return of injury-plagued speedster David Cuningham and an imminent VFL comeback for Caleb Marchbank.

Voss said a notable shift in focus had driven Carlton’s consistent performance against the Suns and had provided the blueprint for more success in the back end of the season.

Michael Voss praised the Blues for sharing the load against the Suns, as Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay and Tom De Koning combined for seven goals between them in their second highest score of the season. Picture: Michael Klein

“What was a real point of difference for us last week was that we took a bit of a selfless sort of approach to the way we played and we all took our turn when it was our turn,” he said.

“The mids did that, our forwards did that and the backs were able to build that cohesiveness that we’ve been after, so we just keep trying to lean on the back of that and build consistency in the way we want to be able to play.

“If the end outcome is the beneficiaries are the two forwards up front then so be it, but that’s certainly not what the focus will be coming in.”

Luckless defender Caleb Marchbank is poised to finally make a return to football on Saturday after being sidelined this season with a calf injury. Picture: Michael Klein

He said the daunting post-bye record of other sides was likely related to the inability of the teams to put enough pressure on their opponents.

“I think (Hawthorn coach) Sam Mitchell referred to it last week actually and tried to give it a bit of attention, and obviously in that particular game it didn’t go exactly the way they wanted it to,” he said.

“Clearly, we talk about it, but the thing we just have to control is just make sure we get out there and train really well.

“What we’ve probably noted over those sides is that the pressure over the course of the whole game has been a little bit down to what their normal standards would probably be, so that’s something just to be aware of.”

Voss said Marchbank had “an important session ahead of him” on Thursday as the intercept defender pushes his case for a VFL return after a frustrating delay before the bye.

“If he gets through, and we suspect he will, he’ll play this week in the VFL,” Voss said.

“He just had a bit of soreness a couple of weeks ago … we’re still trying to build his loads back into him, so we took a bit of a cautious approach with that one and used the bye as an extra week to be able to get extra stuff into him.”