Carlton coach Michael Voss addresses fan frustration after loss to Brisbane

Michael Voss has delivered a message to his club’s increasingly impatient fan base, with many supporters walking out at three-quarter-time in the club’s loss to Brisbane.

Ronny Lerner and Glenn McFarlane

3 min read

May 6, 2023 - 11:29AM

News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom

It was a tough night for Patrick Cripps. Picture: Michael Klein

AFL

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Carlton coach Michael Voss has promised his club’s increasingly impatient fan base that his players will work hard to get better in the areas of the game that are letting them down badly.

The Blues played Brisbane on Friday night in front of a record home-and-away crowd between the two teams (45,548), but by three-quarter time, a large portion had seen enough as their team trailed the Lions by seven goals.

The Carlton fans who were still at the ground at the end of the third term voiced their displeasure by booing their team, but Voss had no issue with that or the early mass exodus from Marvel Stadium.

“That’s up to them, I can’t determine what they do. All I know is I’d rather have our fan base,” Voss said post-match.

“We’ve got a very large supporter base and we will more embrace that than anything else, so we won’t step away from that and we certainly won’t step away from our responsibilities in what we’ve got to do next.

Michael Voss and the Blues have a tough run ahead. Picture: Getty Images

“You want them to bring the noise and with that, there’s good and with that there’s some things that you’re going to have to go through.

“We understand the frustration and we’ll get after it, that’s our promise.

“We have internal measures that we want to make sure that we’re really great at, and at the moment we’re not great at them, and we need to get better.”

The Blues now face a brutal month ahead against key finals contenders.

After being unbeaten and sitting second on the ladder after the first four rounds, Voss’ Blues have now lost three of their past four games - by a collective 104 points - with a 108-point torching of West Coast, their only win since round 4.

Again, the chasm between the Blues’ best and its worst was on show, and it must have frustrated their coach every bit as it did the fans.

A fast-paced start when the pressure was strong and a fast-finish when they almost clawed their way back into the game in the final term were the good moments.

The bad moments were just as stark and damaging. Again, they came with a third quarter wipeout that seemed to have a familiar ring to it as well as a slowing up of the ball movement that played right in the Lions’ hands.

“Good teams give you feedback and we got some feedback tonight that we’re short in a few areas,” Voss said.

Carlton’s big key forwards Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay couldn’t make a big scoreboard impact. Picture: Getty Images

“We can either ignore it or we can accept it and get to work on it so our choice is that we have to get to work on it, accept it and get better.”

Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay kicked one goal each on the night after feasting on the Eagles, though in fairness the use of the ball going into the forward 50m left a lot to be desired.

Cameron and Bailey combined for eight goals, with four each.

Dunkley made another audition for the ‘recruit of the year’, having 33 disposals, taking 11 marks and having six clearances. But his coach Chris Fagan would have been just as impressed with his 13 tackles on the night.

He played on Patrick Cripps for 59 minutes of the game, helping to keep the Blues skipper to his lowest disposal tally of the season (17).