WHILE it may have been an entertaining game in the stands and for the neutral, Carlton AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss challenged his team for a response after a 13-point defeat to Geelong.

In a game where both sides eclipsed 100 points, Voss didn't want to be drawn into a last-quarter comeback from the clouds nearly snatching a win, instead ruing the defensive lapses which saw the Blues concede a big score to the undefeated Cats.

This is what he had to say.

On the overall game, and a late comeback falling short:

“We shouldn’t need the game to get to that stage to feel like we need to snatch it. In some ways, you deserve what you get. We had plenty of other moments during the game where we could’ve tightened that ledger up, got more ascendancy in the game or more reward in the game than what we did. Some critical moments we didn’t get right, and we certainly didn’t defend the way we’d expect. 

“The game was always balanced slightly in their favour, as much as we fought back and as much as we were boxing on. It was too easy for them to score at the other end. Let’s just put it under the banner of defending when you need to: we haven’t done that in this game. 

“We’ve had 66 entries, they’ve had 45 — if you asked me that before the game, I’d say ‘I think the game’s in a good place’. But we just conceded too many shots on goal from those 45 entries, and they were good enough to be able to finish it. I’m sure there’s other semantics we could go over, but in essence, it’s pretty much how the game was made up."

On the midfield battle:

“It was a pretty good battle. I thought we got plenty of looks through the middle of the ground, our mids gave us plenty of drive and we got territory in the right part of the game. There’s no issue there, the mids have gone to work. 

“I don’t want to settle for ‘it was a good effort, it was close’: it was unacceptable. We’ve got to be better. Geelong is currently top of the ladder, but we like to think we benchmark ourselves off our own standards. We fell below those tonight on defending.”

On expectations going forward:

“We’ve got to be better, we’re going to expect better from each other. We conceded 118 points, it’s just too much. We scored well, and it was probably entertaining for everybody… but we didn’t get some important moments right, and we didn’t defend when we needed to for long enough. They’re a good football team.

“We had individuals. I’m not really in the mood to talk up individuals, to be truthful. It takes a team to come out and play well, it takes a team to come out and get the win. As a team, we didn’t get the job done. I’d like to think we all take ownership of that.”

On any injuries coming out of the game:

“I think we’ve got a pretty clean bill of health, which is good. We are expecting a couple to return next week, it’ll become a bit clearer throughout the week. Cerra will probably be okay, Cuningham will get another week and hopefully be okay, Fantasia obviously came out through illness so he’ll be back in the fold. 

“A couple of guys will be coming back in. McGovern might be around the mark, probably another week but around the mark.”

On the potential of rotating the squad with short turnarounds in the coming weeks:

“No I don’t. Every opponent that we’re rolling in against, they’re good opponents. We need to be at our best. We’ve certainly got parts of our game that you’d be pretty impressed with, but I just don’t want us to settle with that. I think we can be better than that. 

“As far as rotations go and players resting, we’re not in that mode.”

On the chance to play in front of another capacity crowd:

“I’m not feeling so warm and fuzzy about that right now! But if you step back for a second, there’s no question that we’ve walked out in front of another 87,000 people here. It’s Geelong’s home match, but our people just keep coming. We’re feeling that wave of support and that noise we’re getting. 

“To be able to walk into an environment like that and somewhat normalise it, that’s a real advantage to us. We find that’s a unique strength of ours, that we can come to the MCG and play in front of these big crowds and against these greats teams and somehow normalise that. 

“It becomes more of a privilege for us, not so much the pressure that comes with it — it comes as a privilege that we get to do that. I hope our supporters walk away knowing that we boxed on and we went toe-to-toe with a very good team, but also feel like we can do better and we can be better and expect better.”

On Jaxon Binns’ debut:

“He’s been knocking on the door for a while and his performance has been really solid and consistent over a long period of time. He’s a well-liked character amongst our boys and I’m sure we’re going to see a lot of footy from him over time in the Carlton jumper. 

“I’m pleased he could get out there, see his family and they were able to rally pretty quickly — they didn’t have a lot of notice, they only found out today. He was able to rally 10 or 12 of them, they came out and I’m sure it was a really special night for them. 

“We don’t want to take that away from him, you always remember your first game — his first game was against Geelong at the MCG in front of 87,000 people. What an exciting way to be able to open up your career.”