THREE days removed from Round 10, two days to go until Round 11.

AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss fronted the media on Wednesday morning: this is what he had to say.

On the wash-up from last week: 

"One of the things you want to provide is clarity on the direction forward is for us. It was only a few days ago when we sat in that room and debriefed the game and my first instincts on the game haven’t changed.

"We had some great moments where we were able to hold, but other moments where we can do a lot better. You want to build it off the back of strong contest and a strong defensive system. We’ve got a bit of work to do on that.

"As a byproduct of that, we feel we’ll get some better looks the other way."

On the balancing act of being positive and being challenging:

"I think sometimes what might be deemed as support publicly doesn’t mean you’re not challenging them behind the scenes. There’s the healthy balance between the two, and we’re always trying to provide that clarity on what expectations are.

"We’ve been really clear, but it’s our ability to execute for longer periods of time which hasn’t been there. That’s still our challenge. The challenge is doing that for longer, and we’ll continue to wrap our expectations around that, what we need in certain circumstances and what behaviours we need to support that. We’ll keep chasing that."

On a potential return for Tom De Koning:

"It’s a real possibility. He has missed a full month [of senior football] but was able to play a strong game on the weekend for us. That’ll come under strong consideration."

On Marc Pittonet re-signing:

"His reliability has been pretty impressive, to be able to see what he’s done this year and the looks he gives our mids. He’s a bash-and-crash style of ruckman. In some ways, it has taken to this period of time for him to find his feet, playing 50 games.

"Even though he might be a little bit older, he’s developing his ruck craft and our mids love playing with him and he gives us great presence in the team. We’re rapt that he’s been able to stick around for another few years.

"As far as we’re concerned, what people naturally do is they look at one and think that equals the other. It doesn’t impact [discussions about De Koning]. What we’re pleased with is we’ve got ‘Pitto’ done, and the position has been clear about Tom . . . we want him to stay, he’s an important person to us."

On the full nature of team defence:

"We all talk about modern systems, which frustrates some people in terms of mids, backs and forwards, but sometimes your forwards have to be your pressure experts and sometimes your defenders have got to be your best ball movers. It’s an 18-man system and for us to be a totally connected football team, we need to join in on all phases of the game. That’s one of them that we want to make ground on."

On the support of Luke Sayers earlier in the week:

"It’s support for our program. From our perspective, we feel like we’ve got a strong program here and we’ve got a strong environment. We’re going through a tough patch.

"We’re going through a tough patch at the moment, which we’re going to work through, and that’s by sticking together and having a strong, challenging environment. We feel like we can work through it. Our goals don’t change, but at the same time, we’ve very much got our sights on this weekend’s game."

On potential personnel changes:

"Possibly. We lean into form and we’re always looking at what mix of players we need to help us with that. Certain players have had challenges with form in the last little while and we have to put that into the mix and look at some changes and how we’re setting up — is it best supporting us to get the result we’re after? They’re all things we’ve been asking questions around.

"Cohesiveness is pretty important for us, and it’s been absent for a little while. We’ve had players come in and out for varying reasons, so you also want some cohesiveness. You look at personnel, but it’s also about consistency and building connection between phases so there’s familiarity between roles.

"You don’t rule out anything, but you’ve got to balance it all up."

On Paddy Dow’s VFL form:

"It comes down to the personnel question. Paddy is an inside mid and we’re always having conversations about what that midfield mix looks like. The reality is we’ve got a few of those: he’s clear on that, but it doesn’t mean that’s not an option for us to go to.

"It just means there’s a challenge there for the entire midfield group in terms of what personnel we want in there and where we see them playing and how can they help us best. He keeps showing up for us, and I’ve got great admiration for him to be able to do that, but he’s really clear - and so are others - on balancing it all up."

On Jack Martin’s fitness:

"I wouldn’t say setback, but he hasn’t progressed as much as what we need to. The big thing is we make sure Jack gets an absolute run at it, which is our priority. We’re hoping he’s available next week, but that’s not confirmed just yet: we’ll have more on that early next week."