Michael Voss and Robert Walls: Brisbane Bears, Carlton and overcoming the weight of history
He was a Brownlow medal winning triple premiership cup holding captain of the Brisbane Bears and Lions but Michael Voss’ career is littered with unlikely connections to the Navy Blue
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It was jokingly considered the most “dangerous” seat on the flight home when the Brisbane Bears were winging it out of Melbourne back in the early 1990s.
But some of those mid-air lessons a teenage Michael Voss took from those trips still sit with him now, as Carlton coach, three decades on.
Invariably, those Bears matches ended in defeat and disappointment, particularly in Voss’ first two seasons of 1992 and 1993.
And given the club’s flight home arrangements included alphabetical seating, Voss almost always found himself sitting beside his sometimes grumpy, but always insightful, coach Robert Walls, with teammate Darryl White on the other side.
“I’m forever grateful for the opportunities Wallsy gave me in those days and for the support he has continued to give me over the years,” Voss said this week ahead of Carlton’s Heritage Game clash with Hawthorn at the MCG on Sunday.
The connection between the current Carlton coach and the man who was his first AFL coach at Brisbane is as strong as ever.
Walls, now 74 and in remission for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, still shoots the Blues coach an occasional text and speaks to him on a semi-regular basis.
The pair sat down this week for a Sunday Herald Sun interview to mark the Blues’ 160th birthday and to highlight the link between the past and the present at Carlton, which has played a role in the club’s recent on and off-field revival.
“He (Walls) was going to take you to the well and force you to drink,” Voss said with a smile of his first AFL coach.
“It wasn’t unusual to go to the MCG on a Saturday and fly home that night. We would sit in alphabetical order … it always went W V W (Walls, Voss, White). I don’t know how that works in the alphabet, but somehow I always ended up in the middle.”
Walls had a chuckle this week, conceding: “Gee, he (Voss) was unlucky; most of the time we got beaten down there, so I wasn’t in a good mood.”
Voss looks back on those formative years as key moments in his footy journey.
There was one added bonus to the flights home … he got some help with his homework.
“Wallsy was an ex-teacher and I would sort of drag out my homework,” he said. “He would be looking over the stats but every now and then he would help me out with my homework.”
POP AND THE PREMIERSHIP
While the rest of his family barracked for Richmond, Voss became a self-confessed Carlton “nuffy”, thanks to his grandfather Keith Lynn.
He was always trying to be Ken Hunter or Wayne Johnston in the backyard. Now he’s proud to see Hunter and Johnston – and a host of others – walking through the corridors at Ikon Park, mixing with the 2024 Blues.
“I distinctly remember the 1987 grand final when we were sitting on the floor of Pop’s house in Orbost. I was 12 at the time,” Voss said.
“David Rhys-Jones did an amazing job on Dermie (Brereton) and he went on to win the Norm Smith (Medal). The thing I remember the most is Wallsy (as coach) holding up the cup with ‘Sticks’ (Stephen Kernahan).”
In an interview on the day he was appointed Carlton coach in late 2022, Voss said: “I remember saying: ‘That’s what I want to do, I want to be a premiership captain.’
“I didn’t know I was going to have the good fortune of being able to do that (as a three-time Brisbane Lions premiership captain).”
WORKING WITH WALLSY
Two sliding doors moments brought Voss into Walls’ coaching orbit in the early 1990s. Firstly, he and his family moved to Queensland when he was 11, and just a few years later Walls took on the job of coaching cellar dweller Brisbane in the AFL.
Walls recalled this week: “Rodney Eade was coaching (the Bears reserves in 1991) and he said to me, ‘Do you want to see the best schoolboy footballer in Queensland?’
“He said, ‘There is this kid called Michael Voss’. Michael was playing a high school game and I went and saw him and thought he was a pretty impressive kid. We got him to come and train with us for one session a week, a skills session.
“Matty Campbell used to pick him up after school on the freeway and drive him to training. Michael was only 16, but his skills would have been in our top half dozen on the track.”
Walls let Voss ease through his Teal Cup representative year in 1992 before playing him in the AFL.
He had only just turned 17 when he made his debut against Fitzroy in round 18 – at Princes Park, of all grounds.
“I have just had all these sliding doors moments (connected to Carlton) and that was another one, as we played Fitzroy at Princes Park,” Voss said.
“I was 71 kilos, maybe even lighter. I had a pretty good game and we won by 41 points.”
Walls remembers Voss having a “very good game” with 26 disposals. His opponent on the wing was John Blakey (who was later an assistant coach at Brisbane). The kid was on his way.
ADVICE FROM THE ‘DOORMAT’
Of all the nuggets of advice Voss received over his lifetime in footy, one note still resonates with him.
It wasn’t so much the message, but the man who delivered it.
As a kid he had loved watching Carlton’s superstar defender Bruce Doull, who was so painfully shy that he rarely did media interviews and kept one of the lowest profiles imaginable.
Doull, nicknamed “The Flying Doormat” for his famous headband, let his footy do the talking.
But somehow, for a season in the early 1990s, Walls coaxed his Carlton premiership teammate into a defensive mentoring role at the Bears’ Melbourne games.
Walls recalled: “I asked him if he would help out and obviously Bruce didn’t want any fanfare. He used to look after our backline for games in Melbourne, and Richard Champion and Michael McLean said it was some of the best coaching they ever had.”
Voss was more than a little starstruck working alongside Doull – ever so briefly – but he never forgot one of the crisp pieces of his feedback.
“The one letter (of assessment from Doull) which Wallsy actually handed to me was only a couple of lines,” he said. “He felt like I could play, but the flaw in my game was my concentration, or lack of it.
“It’s the one bit of feedback I got from Bruce Doull and I have remembered it forever.”
CULTURE CLUBS
When Brisbane was struggling in Voss’ early years, Walls delivered a catchphrase to his players.
A generation on, Voss still uses it in part with his team to emphasise the importance of culture and pride.
“It was ‘Brisbane Bears and proud of it’ … there was a point in time when we were a bit embarrassed to wear our colours and walk the streets … and Wallsy was like, ‘No, you wear your colours proudly, we are going to make people proud of us’,” Voss said.
“That shift in culture was significant and still sits with me. I come from a smaller, boutique supporter base so when I come to a place like this (Carlton), it teaches you to appreciate the good and the bad that is in that support.
“We wouldn’t have it any other way because there are so many positives of being able to play in front of big crowds and having strong support.
“In my first game, I played in front of 6000 fans … I speak to Ollie Hollands now and his first game was against Richmond in front of 87,000 fans and his second game was against Geelong in front of 67,000 fans.
“We have a uniqueness about Carlton which I think you are more than willing to step into.”
Incredibly, the first of Voss’ 19 finals came in Walls’ last game as his coach, the 1995 qualifying final ... against Carlton!
“We gave them (eventual premier Carlton) a fright and our boys couldn’t have done much more,” Walls said. “I was so proud of them.”
That was Brisbane’s penultimate year as the Bears. Voss’s team merged with Fitzroy at the end of the 1996 season, forming the Brisbane Lions.
And Voss ended up being captain of the Lions’ three-peat of premierships from 2001-03, which Walls maintained this week was the greatest side he has seen in VFL-AFL ranks.
Voss said Walls deserved some of the credit for this success, which came six years after his departure.
‘STORIES IN THE NAVY BLUE JUMPER’
Voss noticed a hesitancy to focus on the past when he took over as Carlton coach at the end of 2021. He was intent on changing that.
In part, that has morphed into a club-wide quest to re-engage with its past players and to promote the club’s history as a way into the future.
“In the first discussions about coming here, there was a feeling that because we haven’t had a lot of success in recent times that it (linking with the past) was a bit of handbrake,” Voss said.
“They had been successful teams. We weren’t living up to those successful teams.
“I just found that strange because that is the DNA of Carlton. That permeates throughout this place. We had to realise we were not trying to be the Carlton teams of the 1970s or the 1980s or even the 1990s.
“We are just trying to be the best version of ourselves. We are trying to build our own identity. So now to be able to share those stories of the past, and to see those past players come back, has been fantastic.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to meet Wayne Harmes. It’s been great to see my idol Kenny Hunter and Wayne Johnston floating through the halls, and Rod Ashman. We want them to feel like they can walk through the doors at any time because we can only learn from them.
“There are a lot of stories in that (Navy Blue) jumper.”
Walls credits Voss in helping to make Carlton a more humble place than when he coached the club.
“He (Voss) has given Carlton (back) to the supporters, which I think is important,” he said.
“When I coached there, it was (John) Elliott, (Wes) Lofts and (Ian) Collins and those three said to me, ‘We run the joint, don’t worry about anyone else’.
“You just had big egos controlling the place … but I think Vossy has let everyone feel part of it. He just needed to be given time and you can see the development and the improvement.”
Walls came out in strong support of Voss when he and the Blues were being seriously questioned in the middle of last year.
He maintains the club is in for a sustained period in the top half.
“We saw some really good signs last year and we’ve seen some good signs this year,” Walls said. “I think the next three or four years Carlton should be in the top half dozen and if luck falls your way you can win a premiership.”
Voss makes no secret that’s what he is chasing.
“All I can say is that the club is aligned, the senior leaders are aligned, the supporters are along for the journey, and the past players have a significant role to play for us,” Voss said.
“We’ve got a job to do and the best way we can do that is to earn the right. We haven’t quite earned the right yet as a football club, but we are going some of the way to getting there.”
Originally published as Michael Voss and Robert Walls: Brisbane Bears, Carlton and overcoming the weight of history
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