The lobby of Brisbaneโs Sofitel is a sprawling area of low-back armchairs, small coffee tables and beige carpet. When Michael Voss told Chris Davies he wanted to chat around midday on Friday, the pair found themselves the quietest corner they could.
Davies, the newish Carlton football boss, and Voss knew each other well from a long time working together at Port Adelaide, so Voss felt comfortable to be open with him about what was likely to happen next at Carlton. Voss had a reasonable sense of things from regular dinners or breakfasts (every six weeks or so) with Davies, CEO Graham Wright and president Rob Priestley. With Davies, he wanted to be more direct.
After the St Kilda loss the previous week it became clearer to Voss that, try as he might, he felt like Sisyphus, especially after half-time, as he watched the boulder of first-half work and achievement roll back past him in the second halves of games.
The club, likewise, felt they were watching a bad sitcom on high rotation, the first half setting up a plot so full of promise and joy only to be crushed by the punchline of second-half disappointment.
Realising the inevitable, Voss said it would be better if he went sooner rather than later. This was not a selfish choice, but one to avert the discomfort for all of a coach still being there when they all knew he was not part of their future. How could he be there and not be involved in the myriad important discussions about players, next season and beyond?
Davies understood. They agreed Brisbane would be his final game. They got up, shook hands and agreed to keep it quiet until this week, other than for Davies to inform his boss, Wright.
Voss had already met his manager, Peter Blucher, at a cafe near the GPO and told him what he planned to do.
Earlier in the season there had been a frank conversation between Voss, Davies and Wright in a post-mortem to another loss.
The club had only beaten Richmond โ Richmond! โ by four points in the opening month. The season was slipping away quickly. It was not stated outright what would happen next if the club didnโt turn it around and get the season going, but it did not need to be said. Everyone in the room knew what happens next at clubs in Carltonโs situation.
The results on the field made the clubโs thinking straightforward. While it was clear to all that the players continued to play for their coach, and he never lost the connection with them, the results spoke more loudly. A coach who could so often get his team to leading positions at half-time must be doing something right in preparation and messaging, but the same routine pattern of the matches also pointed to a problem in the game and its coaching.
The playing list was an issue that complicated the picture. The board and senior executives knew the game had trended in one direction, and Carlton and its list another. What they needed to see from the coach was not only, or necessarily, wins, but at least a shift to the game style others were playing. They didnโt see it. Whether that was the coachโs fault or the playersโ inability to play, it was moot.
Whether many coaches could demonstrate a changed game style with the players available to Voss, the club said that after one win and eight losses something had to change. They needed a circuit breaker and the circuit breaker was Voss, the last of the senior leadership positions at the club not to have changed in the past 12 months.
The club sits entrenched in the bottom three with one win. And yet they have had four games decided by fewer than 14 points. They felt they could have and should have beaten North Melbourne and Melbourne, and if not beaten Collingwood then at least drawn with them. Had they won all three of those games, then who knows what would have happened? This decision would not have been taken by Voss, nor would he be have been encouraged to make it at this stage of the season, if the club was four and five.
โUltimately, beyond results alone, we have not seen the intended evolution in our game,โ Priestley said.
As much as long-term decisions are not made on short-term results, these short-term results compounded last seasonโs nine wins, which continued a trend since the high watermark of 2023.
Voss was partly brought undone by a change in the game that none of the football department had properly anticipated. They loaded up on a list of slow players incapable of playing the modern transition game. As the number of stoppages per game dwindled so too did the effectiveness of their ponderous midfield.
One person is never responsible for success or failure at a club, but in football losing demands change, and normally, the senior coach is that change. It is a results-based industry and Vossโ results were not there.
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Michael Gleeson is an award-winning senior sports writer specialising in AFL and athletics.Connect via X or email.
