CARLTON'S trip west marked the team's biggest win since 2011, triumphing by 108 points over West Coast to return to winning form.
In a game where the Blues had 167 more disposals, 23 more contested possessions and 19 more tackles, it was no surprise that AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss was quick to laud the team's temperament in their response.
This is what he had to say.
On focussing on the performance, rather than solely the scoreboard:
“It was a very diligent performance and a very disciplined performance. I felt like we executed for 120 minutes. I didn’t feel like we strayed from what we wanted to achieve at any time and we were able to maintain that intensity throughout the whole game.
“To have a pressure number like that throughout the entire game is pretty impressive: it shows the boys came here to compete right until the end.
“The way you play is really important. It’s not so much the win, but the way you go about it. You can have losses and play the right way, and you can live with the loss — but you can have a loss where you don’t go about it the right way and it feels really hollow. We’ve had a couple of those where we’ve had to go back, have some humility and look at our game and go to work on it.”
On, yes, Charlie Curnow:
“It was really impressive. He’s a handful. I’ve watched him and Harry through pre-season: for him to be able to finish his work was important. The forwards have been working pretty hard on their relationships and cohesion - not just Harry and Charlie, but the smalls too - and how we balance our game more.
“It’s fair to say they’re a good reason to be one-dimensional, because they can impact the game pretty significantly, but we also have to look at other options. I felt like we got that today. We looked at the other options and maybe that’s when [Curnow] got some more opportunities because of it. I’m really pleased it was a team effort.
“The reality is you can focus on the finish, or you can focus on the process. He got the reward today, but it was through good process and sticking to what we need to execute as a footy team.”
On the players looking for Curnow’s 10th:
“Even if I can sense that’s pretty exciting! Even for a coach that wants to continue to do the right things, I can lower my guard for the last five minutes. The boys came up to me saying ‘I hope you don’t mind’.
“By then, there’s the theatre in it of a player trying to kick 10. Clearly West Coast was mindful of that as well.”
On his impassioned three-quarter-time message:
“I’m asking us to finish the game. We’ve had games this year where we’ve won, but we haven’t played the right way at the end and it has almost felt like we’ve lost. Such is the expectation we have of ourselves. It was really important tonight that we finished the game the right way, and walking away feeling like we get the confidence out of the game that we want.
“It was really impressive. No one strayed from their roles, no one strayed from the method. We had a couple of skill errors, but that happens in every game — we’re imperfect. We were able to stick at it, and that’s what I was really pleased about.”
On the roles played throughout the night:
“Kemp coming in for his game did great, Cincotta in his second game is growing in his role.
“We had our midfield group together for the first time that I can recall, to have them all together and playing all together. They’re forming their cohesion again, so we’ve got to use this as a launching pad for ourselves.
“[Acres] was exceptional . . . he has added a real strength to us and has a defensive bias to his game. He’s incredibly loud and loves to have a chat, which is the energy we’re after as a teammate, and we feel like he’s offering us a lot.”
On managing players late:
“There was a determination for us to finish the game the right way. The only one that we were mindful of was we wanted to manage ‘Saady’ off a hamstring. We felt like we got some great gains out of that, and Andrew Russell came up and said ‘what do you think?’ — I was more than happy to go down that path as a priority.
“I think it was important for us to come here tonight and finish it the right way, walk away with some real confidence in the way we played and acknowledge some of the things we’ve been working on in the last couple of weeks that haven’t been going right.
“To come here, we’re aware of the opposition’s challenges - we have to respect their challenges - but we also have to respect them by playing the right way, bringing our a-game and bringing the best version of ourselves. We were able to do that.”
On accepting and embracing shortcomings:
“I felt like we had a lot more balance in our game. We weren’t as one-dimensional in the way we played, and that was a massive factor in getting the result we were after.
“We acknowledged that there were some things we needed to go away and work on, and sometimes it’s really difficult to be able to sit there and say ‘what is it first?’ when you’ve got a fair bit going on. We prioritised the right things and we were able to balance it out more than in previous weeks.”
