MICHAEL Voss is ready to take on a big challenge when facing the Saints this Friday, expecting them to come out firing after a few losses in a row. 

With the game being used to promote Carlton Respects, Voss is sure that the group will be raring to go and wanting to put in a good performance in such an important game for the Club. 

Here's what he had to say. 

On Carlton Respects: 

"It’s a pretty significant game for us: it’s the first time we’ve had the Carlton Respects jumper, orange is the international colour for harmony.

"It’s clearly to raise awareness around gender equality and raising awareness around domestic violence against women, it’s a pretty important initiative for us as a football club.

"Our program extends out and has been able to reach over 10,000 kids... we really want to extend that reach. It's part of the game as well, not just to raise awareness, but raise money to be able to extend that reach.

"I don’t think the message is lost, I think it’s well and truly clear. What’s really important for us as a Club is that we have genuine purpose in how we go about things and this is really critical for us, it’s a really important program for us and it has a really strong message behind it and responsibilities behind it as well.

"This is a great platform, if we need to use a game to extend that conversation, then let's use the game to be able to do it."

On Jacob Weitering and backline availability: 

"We’ll have a look at him today. If he gets through training today, then he’ll be available but it’s still unlikely. It’s looking more realistic for next week but it doesn’t change his training plans today. 

"When he’s gone away and had surgery and come back, we want to know he’s come back with full strength, so that’s all he needs to tick off for us for him to be right. 

"I’ve left it in his court, we want a fit player so if that’s this week or next week, so be it.

"The players that were in last week were exceptional, I can’t fault them the way they went about it, the back six or seven held up really well, they’re playing really well together and the next guy that’s been in there has done a great job. We’ll continue to back that in and if one more becomes available, we’ll deal with it then." 

On Lewis Young: 

"He’s been pretty exceptional from where he’s come from to where he is now. He’s slotted into our system pretty well, with what we’ve asked him to do and he's gone to work on his game, he’s had some great mentors around him to learn his craft.

"The exposure in itself has been really worthwhile for him to build his game and he’s been slowly going about it a step at a time and he hasn’t tried to bite off too much. He’s done it slowly but he’s become a pillar down there for us which is a real credit to him and the work he’s done, it’s a credit to Aaron Hamill, the work he’s done with his coaches around getting better." 

On the team's winning streak at Marvel Stadium: 

"We haven’t spoke about any particular venue being better than any other. If you look at the record this year it certainly says so, but we don’t give it any importance, we don’t talk about the venue.

"What we have given a lot more emphasis to is that we turn up the right way, no matter the circumstances. The Saints have been talked about a lot this week and with what they need to be able to do: that has some importance to us, because we have to respect with what they’re going to  come into the game like, but in the end it shouldn’t change the way that we want to play.

"We have high expectations in the way we want to go about it and that’s what we want to make sure we do on a weekly basis." 

On watching last week's game: 

"I watched it once as a fan, just being able to sit back and watch the game, rather than analysing it, just to watch as a fan of the game: I do that from time to time.

"You walk out of every game saying 'there were some good things out of that to take away and some great steps forward' but unfortunately the coach hat comes on and you still walk out with some growth areas.

"That’s an important process to run through, because we get to work through what’s real and what’s not real. We should get real belief from that, the way we’re able to play, our ability to sustain intensity across the whole game.

"It guarantees us nothing this week though. We still have to turn up with the same method, the same mindset, the way we go about it. If we do that, we put ourselves in a really good position in the game."

On Tom De Koning: 

"It’s amazing when you just give someone responsibility and he’s taken that on. We haven’t asked him to be something he’s not, he’s gradually worked away at his game.

"He works really closely with 'Kreuz' and Tim Clarke and the mids and building that relationship, and that’s what he’s worked really closely on.

"I was particularly pleased with his game on the weekend, he was enormous with the way he went about it, especially with the opponent he was playing against. In this game, you don’t get to rest, you get to acknowledge the efforts and what you did last week and then we step straight into next week: he’s got some good opponents he’s going to have to go work on pretty hard."

On the fans: 

"It’s been great [open trainings] coming back when we haven’t had fans. We’ve been pretty blessed to have 50,000 odd at games nearly every single week.

"It’s been great to see the excitement in their faces and with school holidays, we were able to get a few fans down here at the same time and see our supporters' faces.

"It’s critically important that we can connect with them, clearly the way we’re playing, they’re connecting to it and we want to make sure we continue to play that way."