Inside the demise of Voss, and the weakness that sealed his fate

May 12, 2026 — 11:58am

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Michael Voss was the ninth man to have coached the Blues this century. By surviving into a fifth season and making two finals series and one preliminary final, he out-performed the Carlton averages and was treated more leniently than his numerous predecessors.

His demise was a slow and painful process that seemed as inevitable as Carlton’s second half fade-outs. One could argue that he was doomed from the outset of 2026, entering the season without a contract for next year, in his fifth season while the Blues were beginning a list reset built around young draftees.

Few within the game thought he would coach long past the 2025 season, when the Blues slumped following that brief flirtation with success in 2023-24. The Blues had been besieged from the first game of ’25 when they were overrun by lowly Richmond.

Voss had been appointed by the Luke Sayers and Brian Cook regime, ahead of Giants’ coach Adam Kingsley, in an appointment that still had a touch of old Carlton, as they choose the brand name and former senior coach ahead of the seasoned and tactically adroit assistant who had been in a successful system........

© The Age