A SIGNATURE moment.

Carlton has had a few breakthrough wins under Michael Voss, and the AFL Senior Coach is putting the 36-point triumph over Port Adelaide in a similar basket.

After being right up for the fight across the first three quarters, the Blues stormed home in enemy territory, slamming on eight goals in the final term to enjoy their first win over South Australian opposition at Adelaide Oval.

This is what Voss had to say.

On a special win at Adelaide Oval, traditionally an unhappy hunting ground:

“It is. As part of our transformation as a team over the last two or three years, it feels like there’s been a number of records that we’ve had to try and change. The results haven’t been in our favour for a period of time as a club, so there a few of those things where the ledger isn’t in the right way. 

“The last two or three years, we’ve gradually been able to go about creating that transformation and creating that consistency not only as a football team, but as a football club. Wins like tonight probably go in that bucket. It’s a nice little signature moment where a record that has been there or history that has been there isn’t so much a factor anymore. 

“We certainly don’t see it that way anymore. We tend to look at the way we play: we don’t play the venue, we play the opposition and we want to play a certain way. We were able to do that today.”

On how the last quarter played out:

“I thought that was maybe some reward for large parts of the game. I don’t tend to dive too much into the statistics in the end, but there were a lot in our favour. The game we were trying to play was in our favour, we had a couple of parts that weren’t exactly where we needed it. 

“Horne-Francis was particularly impressive in that period of time, so clearance wasn’t going our way. The profile of this team is evolving, it’s changing. We’re not one dimensional. While one part of our game might not be going the way we would’ve liked, the guys were able to make the correction and we got to work in the last quarter. By the weight of the way we were playing, we ended up getting the result in the end.”

On what changed over the course of the game:

“There were two or three things. Aliir was one that was intercepting, they were intercepting the ball a bit too much through the third quarter. Again, we’re showing a great ability to be able to adapt at the moment. We’re coming in at half time, we’re looking at the game, we’re seeing what we like and we’re seeing what we don’t like. We’ve been able to change a few things or tinker a few things. 

“It says to me that the players are in really good form, their ears are open, they’re able to take the information in and they’re able to go out and execute. It tells me they’re in pretty good form and feeling pretty good about themselves.”

On Patrick Cripps’ last-quarter showing:

“He’s certainly a big believer in we weren’t going to stop, we had to keep playing the same way and we had to take them on. It looked a bit like that, didn’t it? It was a centre-square bounce game. We took our moments. Port had to roll the dice a bit more at the end of the game and we were able to create those turnovers that gave us looks back the other way. 

“We were able to keep the scoreboard ticking over, they needed to be a bit braver to win the game which is fair enough. Despite that, we were able to stick to what we wanted to do, we still kept pressure around the ball and we kept our composure in key moments. We never say that anyone has to step up in big moments, but sometimes they just show themselves. ‘Crippa’, as the captain, did that.”

On the midfield getting to work:

“We just had to get some detail around our stoppages which we needed to fix up. They were breaking far too easily and getting too many metres off that. That was a challenge, so there were a couple of little tidy ups — minor structure, more about method. The boys were really responsive to that. Then it came down to belief, and the belief is growing within this group. 

“But results like tonight don’t confirm your belief about what you’re about, we’ve been playing against some really good teams in the last little while. It feels like we’re playing every team in the top eight or close to the top four: we’ve been challenged in a lot of areas, but as a result, we’ve found out more about ourselves and we rose to it tonight.”

On projecting what could happen in the second half of the season:

“It’s a bit hard to cast too far forward. What we’ve done pretty well for the last little while is get after the next opponent. It’s been dangerous to think otherwise, because everyone is looking forward about who we’re playing but what we’ve done is dial in on the opponent we’ve got. We’ve stayed pretty present to that. 

“We learned a lot of things about ourselves last year. For the sheer fact we’ve gone through that, we’ve got a clearer understanding of what it takes to work our way through it, whether it’s form or things aren’t quite right. We’ve got a clear understanding of what our identity is and what we need to be able to get after. The last couple of weeks, it’s become clearer again for us. The players have been in a position to execute really well.”

On the holding-the-ball adjudication:

“There were a couple, and I thought for the better. There was one that was against Charlie and I thought that was safer for the player, if you want to call it that — I’m not even talking about prior. There was a Matty Owies one as well that I thought ‘that’s how it should be adjudicated in the current landscape of AFL football’. With all the things that are important to us and we say are important to us, I thought those two decisions were correct. As far as prior opportunity goes, it was certainly closer to where I thought it should be. 

“Players adjust. It’s like the manning the mark, it takes in that instance a pre-season to figure it out. Tonight, you had two teams coming off five days [break], so nobody trained and we found out the adjustments after the last training session effectively. There wasn’t a lot of time to make many adjustments, but we don’t need to change much in our method really. 

“We’ve got to keep coaching the boys the same way and know more opportunities exist. For us, we want to bring pressure on the ball, so hopefully there’s more opportunities for us.”

On Zac Williams up forward, plus Alex Cincotta’s tagging role on Zak Butters:

“[Williams] kept telling me for 12 months he kicks goals. I said ‘mate, I’ve had enough of you telling me you kick goals, it’s now time to go forward and kick goals’. He’s been more than that. He’s been able to go up there and have an impact, he’s brought some fresh energy to our group, he’s tough and he’s hard and he’s clean over the footy. He’s hard to beat. 

“It’s been an adjustment that’s come off challenge, and it’s been amazing the guys that have stepped up. I talked last week about having a dual win with being able to bring Cowan in, and he was ready to go. It felt like he was ready to go off his form that he had, it was a great opportunity for us. 

“It gave us the chance to look at Zac forward of the ball, and Cincotta as well we toyed with for probably over a month about doing that role but he was doing such a great job down back on some of the smalls and defending them. We’re giving him a different task, he’s a big body and he’s hungry. I spoke about it last week, but he’s gone about it again against a very good opponent.”

On the potential of tagging Horne-Francis:

“To Butters’ credit, he kept fighting and kept digging and kept trying to find a way. It was a pretty good contest. We needed that role. You could’ve looked at the game and thought with Horne-Francis, you could’ve shifted it. 

“We felt like enough of the game was in our favour than to shift it and light him up for 10-15 minutes, which he can do, as we saw against Hawthorn a couple of weeks ago. We thought we needed to change a little bit of our method with that match-up and keep getting after Butters. Thankfully, we were able to work our way through it and get the result.”

On potential returns from injury:

“It’s getting smaller and smaller. Not off the top of my head [returnees]. ‘Marchy’ will play in the VFL on Sunday, Motlop has been back and he’ll play another game. He effectively got a practice match last week, now he’s able to play another game. 

“We’re banking some work, there are no injuries out of this particular game and we’ve got a 10-day break before we get into Essendon next week.”