“THAT’S an unusual profile for us”. 

AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss admitted that the Blues needed to take a different approach in coming away with the four points against the Tigers.

Winning in different ways is a good sign for Voss, with the Blues largely relying on their transition game after the Tigers had their measure at the contest in the five-point win.

For Voss, he believes it's a team gaining experience in unique game scenarios each week: this is what he had to say.

On what Carlton took out of the game:

“We took out what positives there were in the game. We still feel like we’re trying to get our system in really good shape, so we’ve got some parts of that that we’ve tried to address more recently against some good opposition and then we have some other things that are a work in progress. 

“Some of those holes gave the opposition opportunities and we were inefficient at times. [Richmond] was able to generate a significant score from a source that we do very well defending and also get a lot of assertiveness and territory from. 

“They were able to score too easily from stoppage. There are things in our game that we need to go to work on but there’s also things we should take away and be pretty pleased with.”

On the Blues' inefficiency: 

"We were winning territory, we didn’t have any trouble with that. The ball was living in our half, especially in the second quarter, so the tendency is because the scoreboard wasn’t ticking over as efficiently as you needed to, you can become a bit frustrated. I just encouraged the players to stick to the process and keep believing in what we need to be able to do.

"Shots on goal have a strange way of having momentum for you or against you and it certainly hasn't been showing itself for us for a period of time, I think we’ve been efficient in our half. I thought Richmond defended their back 50 hard and we probably weren’t as composed as we needed to be at times, so that's something we can look at the vision and get to work on."

On winning a string of close games: 

"You can only play what’s in front of you and you have to win in different ways. We’ve spoken at length about the consistency we want to have as a football team and sometimes that consistency doesn’t mean you play every quarter the exact same way, but you’ve got to be able to find a way.

"With about five minutes on the clock, you could see the players kick into gear. We activated a few things late in the game to make sure it made it a bit harder for them to score and I thought they did a great job in being able to deny Richmond, and in the end, that was the difference in the game.

"We encourage our players to problem solve the situation, so it’s left up to them to get the action and what structure we need to put around it as well. Because we’ve found ourselves in those moments a bit more than what we’d like, the players are embracing it and they see it as a bit of a challenge when they find themselves in those situations."

On Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay:

"I think Charlie has lost his good looks for a couple of days! He’s always a presence for us. Both he and Harry have been really important people, the unit they’re building up there, the relationship, the cohesion they're trying to build has been really impressive.

"Both of them approached it in such a good way in the pre-season, I hope they get the reward they deserve because they work their asses off to make themselves good players."

On Mitch McGovern: 

"We have certain metrics that we take into the pre-season and [McGovern] had a pretty reasonable one last year, but he’s been able to build on that, and got the games in last year so that helps.

"Clearly, him being able to have a pre-season helps him be able to recover during the week and put in performances like that. He played a fantastic game for us and those intercept types that play behind the ball, they’re really important players in the modern game. They know how to manage the speed of the game and they know when to come off and assist, and he was certainly able to do that tonight."

On returning players: 

"'Weiters' is progressing really well. The round hasn’t been set in stone yet but it will be Round 3 or Round 4, so that we do know. Marchbank has been doing well, he’s been in full training for a few weeks now, so he’ll be right to go."