“THERE’S an urgency to get it right.”
Carlton may be four wins from four games, but they’re not resting on their laurels. As Michael Voss put it, there’s still a lot to improve on.
The Blues once again got it done in close fashion against Fremantle, coming away from Adelaide Oval with their first win at the venue in a 10-point victory.
Carlton was dogged in its approach, constantly staying with a Dockers outfit that had the edge when it came to getting their hands on the football first. It’s been a different profile for the Blues this season, capitalising off turnover after being such a strong clearance side under Voss’ previous two years.
While Voss has been buoyed by the Blues’ development in punishing turnover, he said the team would look to build on their clearance game in the coming weeks — but not at the expense of what’s working.
“What we have acknowledged is since the start of the season, we’ve continually tried to add layers into our system. We certainly felt like when we stepped into the season, it wasn’t all together, so to gradually build on that has been good to see in the last month,” Voss told SEN.
“There will always be tidy ups, but I think this one is more obvious than others. We know we’ve got to get our hands on it a little bit more, get it a bit more forward and get more territory from our clearances. It’s something that we don’t feel like is coming at too great of an expense for us right now, but we know over time we can’t afford to have those numbers against us.”
The Blues are yet to have more clearances than their opposition this season, with the differential of -17 against the Dockers the largest total in the Blues’ tenure under Voss.
But what stood out was Carlton wasn’t punished, only scoring eight less points than Fremantle as its defence rose to the occasion under constant pressure.
“We tend to forensically look at the number, and numbers only tell you one thing. We also look at the quality of the exits, if we’re getting pressure on the ball, where they’re exciting from. There’s a whole lot of other layers that go into it, but clearly what has been a strength of ours in the past is we’ve got territory from that source,” he said.
“I’m not complaining, that’s for sure! Other parts of our game are holding us up really well. It’s something that we’ve got to get to work on. We’ve got naturally gifted players that love the contest, and with a little bit more attention - but not at the expense of anything else - we’ll get after it.
“We’ve always been good at defending stoppages . . . but we obviously don’t want to put too much tension on the system. It’s something we’re looking at and working on, the guys have put a heap of effort into it.
“Sometimes it’s about patience and persistence, and in this case, that’s so.”
