ANTICIPATION.
AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss is excited to start a new chapter at Carlton, with his side making its first finals appearance in a decade.
Speaking on Patrick Cripps, the mindset of the group and the challenge that awaits, here's what he had to say.
On the feel around the Club:
"Certainly you’re reminded every day of the significance of firstly making the finals, but also that we don’t want to just make it, we want to impact it.
"We want to make a good account of ourselves Friday night: we’re coming up against a great opposition, we’re really looking forward to it."
On the best moments in footy:
"We look across the fences and see smiles on faces, we see the joy amongst our supporter base and there’s nothing more exciting than that: when you can finish a game, it can be against the odds and you walk around the boundary and see how happy everyone is, that’s a magical moment.
"When you get to go underneath and sing your song, those are the two best moments that you can have in football."
On how playing finals can feel:
"I don’t think it’s that different.
"That environment we have been exposed to, we’ve had these really harsh losses at the back end of last year, and we take a lot of hurt out of that and that’s driven us a lot through this year. We’ve taken some of our most recent experience and we’ve been able to put that to work as well and we’re doing that under a fairly heavy spotlight.
"Everyone is watching and looking to see how we react and how we respond. We’re playing against teams in front of 80,000 people often, so the experiences are there: I feel like we’re ready, we might be the new kids on the block, but I feel like we’re ready."
On the low period in the season:
"It tested every facet to stay the course. One of the trickiest parts during that time was what to change and what not to change, what to go after that you need to tinker with but then what to be really strong and consistent on.
"We took a position as a Club that we wanted to be really consistent through that period of time. We felt like stability would be the biggest thing we would need to have that could create the greatest change of all.
"I think that will be one of our most successful achievements throughout the year, that as a Club, we worked through all that together. It’s not one person or leader, it takes a group of people to stay the course.
On Patrick Cripps:
"He was able to play Gold Coast: we knew he wasn’t at his best so the fact that we could give him a week off - knowing the results would fall our way - was a real positive for us, so we’ll get a good version of him on Friday.
"While we were going through that tough period, he was facing some of his own challenges with his own form. To try and lead through that period when your form isn’t exactly where you want it to be and still have to lead your team and still be the presence and the face of your team, that’s extremely tough."
On how finals are different to the regular season:
"There’s an end, and you know there’s an end. If you win, you carry on and if you don’t, it’s a harsh finish.
"The biggest thing you can do through finals is stay totally present in the moment and enjoy it as best as you possibly can. It’s an extremely exciting time and some people struggle to know how they should act, but just be yourself. Stay totally present, don’t drift out to the outcome, don’t worry about if you’re best on the ground, whether you win or lose, just stay in that moment."
On playing at the MCG on Friday night:
"It feels good and it feels even better being at the MCG. You light up when you start talking about it and knowing that you’re back and in the arena again, there’s no better place in the world to go out and do what you do.
"It’s different as a coach, it’s very different because you take that collective energy on without having to expend it anywhere.
"I’m really looking forward to it and I’m really proud of what the group has been able to do. I just want to see the full version of ourselves, because I know it’s a good version."
