AFL round 17 Carlton v Collingwood: Blues belted by dominant Magpies

The No. 1 side in footy flexed their muscle against the Blues at the MCG as the pressure on Carlton rises again. Watch the full press conference from Michael Voss here.

Ronny Lerner

4 min read

July 4, 2025 - 11:22PM

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Embattled Carlton coach Michael Voss refused to buy into speculation on his future with the Blues after yet another terrible performance against Collingwood at the MCG on Friday night.

Carlton was blown away after half-time as the Magpies careered towards a convincing 56-point victory, and continued an alarming stretch of form for the Blues which also includes horrible efforts in losses to North Melbourne and Port Adelaide.

When asked if he was confident about his position at the club, Voss said: “Don’t speculate beyond this week, so it’s not for me to do.

“It’s clear we need to have some pretty important conversations. We let our club down tonight.

The Blues have lost three games in a row. Picture: Mark Stewart

“We want our supporters to be proud of us and we didn’t do that tonight. There’s an expectation on the way we want to be able to play and we didn’t do that tonight.

“So that’s something we’re going to have to sit with. Not going to avoid that conversation. We’ll have to cop our whack, well we have to cop it, because we can’t tolerate that. That was a really poor performance.”

Voss stressed the importance of his leaders to steer the club out of this treacherous form slump they find themselves in, and the Carlton coach said that process would start with him.

“You get asked that question a fair bit around pressure. And clearly there’s that, I just choose not to act into it,” Voss said.

Jamie Elliott soccers a goal and Michael Voss isn’t happy.

“Every day I come into work I get to choose what type of leader I want to be and that means I get the chance to impact and we’ve got to shift the needle so that will take a collective effort.

“There’ll be a lot of leaning on our leaders this week.

“If I’m not going to believe in what we’re doing then they won’t believe in the direction we’re going in.”

Voss admitted the last three weeks were very concerning.

“Well I can’t sit here and say it’s about a body of work and then when it goes against you say it’s not,” Voss said.

“The last three weeks we don’t clearly want to see.”

Regarding the style of game he wants Carlton to play, Voss said: “We have not seen that enough over the last three weeks.”

MATCH REPORT: PIES IN A CAKEWALK

The pressure on Carlton coach Michael Voss is set to intensify even further this week after Collingwood smashed his team by 56 points at the MCG on Friday night.

After a disastrous fortnight for the Blues, which saw them suffer embarrassing defeats to North Melbourne and Port Adelaide, they barely gave a yelp after half-time against their biggest rivals as the Magpies cantered to an emphatic 17.13 (115) to 8.11 (59) victory.

Collingwood head into the weekend a lazy 14 points clear on top of the ladder, having now won 12 of their last 14 games against Carlton.

Voss is contracted for next season, but as the uncompetitive results continue to pile up, it’s becoming more apparent with each passing week that his message to his players is falling on deaf ears.

It was another tough night for Carlton. Picture: Getty Images

A third quarter for the ages from Collingwood completely blew the contest wide open as they piled on eight goals to open up a whopping 67-point lead.

The Magpies’ forward efficiency skyrocketed. Their first nine inside 50s for the term all yielded scores (6.3) as Carlton’s defence capitulated and all the Blues’ admirable effort from the first half completely fell away.

The difference in skill and class between the two sides was stark, and it was abundantly clear that this was a game between the premiership favourites and a team three games outside the top eight.

While the slick Magpies hit targets at will, Carlton’s disposal was too sloppy too often, and concerningly, some of their most senior players in Patrick Cripps, Blake Acres and Sam Docherty were the biggest culprits when the game was up for grabs.

The quality of Collingwood’s inside 50s, in particular, with the likes of Scott Pendlebury and Nick Daicos using the ball like a pair of surgeons, was far superior to Carlton’s as the Blues’ foot skills deteriorated as the game wore on.

Nick Daicos slots a brilliant running goal.

Collingwood’s pressure was red-hot all night, as they finished with a big lead in tackles (60-46), while they comfortably won the contested possessions (135-117) and finished with a big buffer in forward entries (60-49).

Daicos continued his charge towards a possible maiden Brownlow despite receiving attention from Carlton’s George Hewett throughout the game, finishing with 36 disposals (13 contested), seven marks (two), seven clearances, seven inside 50s and a goal.

Jamie Elliott booted four goals from his 15 touches and eight marks — he now has a career-best 41 majors for the year with seven rounds still to play.

Daniel McStay was also a big attacking threat with four goals and Tom Mitchell had 26 touches (11) and four clearances in his first game back in 435 days.

Collingwood were superb. Picture: Getty Images

PARTY PIES

Collingwood could do no wrong in the third quarter. At the 19-minute mark, Lachie Sullivan broke the Francis Evans tackle with brute force before snapping truly from 25m out and three minutes later, McStay unloaded from inside the centre square and bounced it home from 75m out. Jack Crisp capped it all off with a sensational set shot from a severe angle 40m out on the boundary.

Brody Mihocek and Will Hoskin-Elliott celebrate a goal. Picture: Getty Images

BRILLIANT BRODY

Brody Mihocek displayed incredible skills to set up Collingwood’s first goal. After gathering the ball magnificently at full pelt on the half-volley, he then spotted up Will Hoskin-Elliott with absolute precision by weighting the ball perfectly so that it evaded the outstretched fingertips of Carlton’s Harry O’Farrell ever so slightly. Hoskin-Elliott finished off the play with a converted set shot from 45m out.

HOWE GOOD IS THAT

Jeremy Howe showed there is plenty left in his 35-year-old legs yet when he turned on the turbo boosters, broke the Nick Haynes tackle and pumped the ball deep into attack to McStay who took a strong mark a few metres out. The former Lion kicked the easy goal on the half-time siren to give his side a 24-point lead.