Carlton coach Michael Voss faces media before round 16 match against Port Adelaide

The blowtorch is heating up on Carlton and Michael Voss. See what he had to say ahead of Thursday night’s must-win game against Port Adelaide.

Under pressure Carlton coach Michael Voss says he hasn’t had any conversations with Blues powerbrokers regarding his future past the end of this season.

Voss said he was not looking past Thursday night’s clash against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval as the pressure rises on the struggling Blues.

Skipper Patrick Cripps was not at the Blues’ captains run at Unley Oval on Wednesday as he battles illness, but Voss said he was confident the two-time Brownlow Medallist will take on the Power along with key defender Jacob Weitering.

Michael Voss. Picture: Getty Images

The Blues’ disappointing loss to North Melbourne on Saturday has heaped significant amount of pressure on the club and on Voss’ status as senior coach.

He is still contracted until the end of 2026 but wide-ranging change is expected at Carlton when Graham Wright takes over as chief executive from Brian Cook.

When asked if he had spoken to either Cook or Wright, or the board, about his status as senior coach Voss said he had not.

“No, and it is sort of an unnecessary conversation right now other than being in complete communications with them at all time,” he said.

“That has been really valuable and having the leadership of those two guys and Rob (Priestley) as our president they are outstanding leaders and they are only interested in alignment and in solving it together and the support I feel.”

In the wake of the loss to the Kangaroos, Carlton figures have said that Voss’ job is safe for the rest of this season.

Asked if the final nine games of the season would determine whether he is in the role in 2026, Voss said he wasn’t thinking that way.

“I don’t deal in hypotheticals like that … as far as we are concerned we have come off a game only four days ago,” he said.

“You tend to focus a lot of your energy on turning around what was a disappointing loss into something else.

“We haven’t drifted too far away from that.”

While the message out of the Blues has been a coaching change won’t be made this season, Hawthorn and Sydney legend Lance Franklin has declared that Carlton needs to make the change now.

Voss said he was not aware of Franklin’s comments.

As well as Voss’ position much of the fallout from the Blues loss has centred around their gamestyle and whether it can match it with the best teams in the competition in 2025.

Voss said it could and that his message was still getting through to players.

“I do, I think it is a pretty impressive brand to watch. It is hard to talk down being the number one contested side in the competition,” he said.

“It is something if you want to be good at and known for it is in the effort indicators in this game.

“I don’t think there would be a team in the land that wouldn’t want to be in that spot but you have to balance it out with other things in the game and what we acknowledge is that we are not that balanced profile yet.

“But we are busily working away at it.

“Yeah very, with everything we have done even from the bye with some of the things we have reinforced and trained we’ve been able to put into work and they have done a good job since then.”

He announced that Billy Wilson and Flynn Young would make their debuts against Port.

Originally published as Carlton coach Michael Voss faces media before round 16 match against Port Adelaide