Voss passionately defended his club. He did not have the same support from his bosses

May 13, 2026 — 5:00am

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Now that Michael Voss’ second attempt at AFL senior coaching has officially failed, it is worth wondering just how galling it must have been for the three-time premiership captain and one of the greatest players in the modern game to have spent so much time in his post-playing role looking over his shoulder.

Voss became a senior coach way too soon. His legendary predecessor Leigh Matthews had rejected a succession plan involving his long-time skipper that the Lions board presented to him. Then Matthews saw the writing on his own well-decorated wall and retired one year before his contract was up.

Voss had been headed to West Coast to assume a lucrative senior assistant coaching role by then, but quickly headed back to Brisbane – taking over a tired old prizefighter of a club living in the shadow of recent glories and his famous predecessor. Voss, with zero coaching experience, made the finals in his first year but a series of wrong-headed decisions – and he alone wasn’t to blame – and the apparent availability of Paul Roos led to his sacking before the end of his fifth season.

The failure to launch his coaching career with a role on the Eagles’ staff was one in a long series of sliding doors moments for Voss which could have seen his career move in a different direction.

Another significant twist of fate occurred in late 2021, when former Blues president Luke Sayers virtually offered Ross Lyon the coaching role but then suffered cold feet due to concerns about a comment by Lyon at a Christmas function at Fremantle years earlier, which the AFL found did not warrant action. Voss’ determination to work toward a second chance had led him to Port Adelaide in 2015 where he spent seven years as Ken Hinkley’s assistant.

He missed out on the Carlton job once before successfully applying a second time after David Teague was........

© The Age