Michael Voss calls for patience from frustrated Carlton fans

Carlton coach Michael Voss has revealed why the Blues won’t make significant changes after a tough start to the season.

Michael Voss says the Blues are focused firmly on building a sustainably successful system and not concerned by outside expectations. Picture: Quinn Rooney / Getty Images)

Carlton coach Michael Voss says the Blues are not looking for a quick fix to simply scrape into the top eight, playing down external pressure to secure a finals berth.

The Blues were booed by their own supporters when they trailed Brisbane by 40 points at three quarter time last weekend, but despite three losses in their last four games, Voss says there is no need for hasty changes to set their season back on course.

He said he understood the frustration of fans at the Blues’ indifferent form, but there was a greater need to build “sustainable” long-term success.

“There seems to be an obsession to define a season by round 8, I guess I probably become somewhat confused by the whole conversation, because the agenda of what we wanted to go about our business was set by the final siren at the end of last year,” Voss said.

“We appreciated that as a football team we needed to get better at what we did.

Voss says debate over whether the Blues’ season is a failure if they miss the finals has no bearing on where he is trying to take his side. Picture: Dylan Burns / Getty Images

“I think the only context I’d like to provide around some of those comments is that it’s probably more referring to the process and getting better at a lot of the things that we want to hold us to be sustainably good for a long period of time.”

Voss said there was little difference between missing the top eight and scraping into the finals only to be dumped out in the first week.

“I don’t we should be confused about what our expectations are – we just don’t want to participate in finals, we want to have a say, we want to have an impact,” he said.

“For us it’s pretty clear on what we’re trying to achieve.”

He said captain Patrick Cripps was hellbent on lifting his game after a pair of comprehensive head-to-head defeats against Brisbane’s Josh Dunkley and Adelaide’s Jordan Dawson in the past month.

Cult figure Matthew Cottrell will play his first game of the season against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night. Picture: Chris Hyde / Getty Images

Cripps will likely find himself opposed to Western Bulldogs star Marcus Bontempelli at different times on Saturday night, Voss said.

“I think that would be stating the obvious (that Cripps was disappointed with those performances),” he said.

“It’s happened a couple of times only in the last little while … what I would say is that he doesn’t own all of that, he’s got a job to be able to do and our midfield has a job to do.

“How do we support him when those moments happen – it’s going to be the same with Bontempelli.”

Voss said he was excited to introduce Matthew Cottrell back into the senior side after two VFL games following his return from a foot injury.

“His progression in his footy over the last 15 months has been particularly impressive … he brings a heap of energy for us,” he said.

I think we’ve had some good (outside) run there, but he comes in and he brings something quite different, he can play a couple of different roles for us, he adds some versatility and flexibility to our team as well.”

Originally published as Michael Voss calls for patience from frustrated Carlton fans