FROM returning players, the West Coast challenge and this week’s sub, there was plenty for AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss to discuss upon Carlton touching down in Perth.
This is what he had to say.
On the challenge West Coast presents:
“I have great empathy for what they’re doing: last year, we find ourselves in the same situation [injury-wise] and it can be pretty tough. In the same situation, you’re trying to educate a next-man-up approach and I’m sure that’s been a strong conversation for their team.
“You’d expect a team to come out there and bring enormous effort, that’s a thing you can control. I’m not coaching the West Coast Eagles, but I’m sure that’s coming through loud and clear and is a backs-to-the-wall message.
“They’re super efficient inside 50 — they’ve been that way forever. They’ve got a lot of threats down there that can hit the scoreboard, so we have to be mindful of that.
“We’re pretty clear on what we’re coming into. It’s a tough environment to win at and we don’t have a great record here. Last year we came here for a win, and we want to come away with another one. We have an expectation of the way we want to play — regardless of where that is, what opposition we play or who is in the jumper.”
On Sam Docherty’s return:
“He keeps surprising me. I said to him this time ‘Mate, I believe you that you’ll make it’. He was pretty determined early on.
“His recovery powers are pretty impressive, but early in the week he was making some really good progress. He got back into running, jumped into training, had no affects and was able to complete full training.
“It seems a bit pointless to wait another week: he’s well and truly fit and ready to go.”
On welcoming back Adam Saad:
“He’s the same. His was only minor anyway. There’s the scan, and then there’s what they have to be able to tick off to ensure they’re fit and healthy. He has met all those markers and he’s ready to go.”
On criticism of Harry McKay:
“I think he’s handled it really well. We are an industry that will critique people. I look at his game and see a really quality game that he played.
“He didn’t quite get the finish he was after but gee, he got the opportunities — I’d rather be dealing with that problem. There’s Harry, and then there’s the rest of the team we have to focus on.
“We’re not quite as efficient as we need to be going forward, and we’ve put a fair bit of work into that this week. We don’t expect it to be a fix in six days, but we’ve given it some attention and we’ll look to put things in tomorrow.”
On Brodie Kemp’s selection:
“The major decision around ‘Kempy’ was that he’s in great form, and has been in great form since the start of this year. He’s been building nicely.
“He has demanded a spot in the team, so whether we were playing talls or not talls, he deserves to play. That’s the way we looked at it, and the match-ups turned out that he’s got someone to play on.
“The determining factor was his form.”
On Tom De Koning playing VFL this week:
“What we’ve got to look at is the skillset and the profile we need. We have to balance that up with what we need to get from him.
“He’s pretty clear on what he’s got to go back and work on. He was a bit banged up last week so we gave him a rest, and he’ll go back to the VFL to work on his game. He’s an important person to us, so I imagine he’ll be back pretty soon.”
On Matthew Kennedy ‘not’ being in the team:
“Matty will be sub, I don’t mind disclosing that. That’s the nature of the way we select teams now.
“I don’t see why you can’t name the 23 but it is what it is. Matty will be the sub and when we have to activate him throughout the game, we know the role he can play for us.
“It’s crazy why we’ve got to ‘omit’ them, it’s one of the crazier rules I’ve seen to omit someone and then put them back in. Hopefully by the time we get to the end of the year, they look at that pretty closely . . . it needs to change.”
