A JOB to do.

While AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss doesn’t want his Carlton side to dismiss the occasion of a blockbuster against the arch rival, he stressed the need to focus on the task at hand.

And it’s a big task.

With the second-placed Bombers waiting in the wings on Sunday night in front of a sold-out crowd, this is what Voss had to say.

On Lachie Fogarty’s re-signing:

“I’ve got a good smile on my face! His journey since I’ve been here, he’s really grown and his importance to us in the team has really grown. It’s a pretty simple role he brings for us, but he’s so diligent in the way he goes about it. 

“Through that dependability and reliability that he’s been able to build over that period of time as a teammate, the players love playing with him. 

“We let the boys know in the rooms just before and the response was well and truly overwhelming. It carried on a fair bit! But that speaks to the significance and the type of teammate he’s been for us particularly over the last 12 months.”

On the wash-up from the Port Adelaide game:

“It was nice to get a bit of a break from one game to the next. We almost hadn’t taken a breath from the Gold Coast game into the Port game. To travel away together and be able to get that win was great, getting a few days away and absorb it and get a rest was also important. 

“We took a couple of days to settle everything down, and now we ramp it up. We’ve got another really important game coming at us, and they obviously pose a few things at us that we have to make sure we get after.”

On how Essendon is tracking in 2024:

“They’ve been very consistent in their execution. They’ve clearly got a really strong midfield that they’ve been able to put together and a pretty stable backline, if you look at what they’ve been able to do. 

“Maybe just 12 months on, they’re executing a little better with what Brad [Scott] and the coaching team are trying to get them to do. They’ve been a very consistent side and earned their ladder position, there’s no doubt about that.”

On another test against top-four opposition:

“With a few days to take a breath, you can sit back and have a look at the last period of time. We’ve had some challenges within that. If you look at the opposition we’ve played against, we’ve only played one side out of the top 10 since Round [5]. The draw has been pretty challenging, you never know what it looks like until you get into the season. 

“We’ve had some personnel that haven’t had the continuity, so it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. When you weigh those things up and you pit yourselves against the opposition, you have to say it’s been pretty good. We’ve been a fairly consistent side, but we’re still refining where we think we’re at. 

“Some of the pieces have fallen a bit closer together in the last couple of weeks, and we’ve certainly had the stability in the side to go with it. We feel like we’re well placed. We play Essendon then we have the bye, and there’s another challenge again.”

On Zac Williams staying up forward:

“It’s hard to take him away if he keeps doing what he’s doing. As a byproduct of those challenges, there have been opportunities. He’s been one of those particular players to be able to go forward. 

“It’s also a real positive in our growth down back that we’ve been able to get young Lachie Cowan in and we’re trying to get him settled in the backline. It’s afforded us to throw Zac up front. I said it a couple of weeks ago that he’s been telling me for 12 months that he can kick goals, so I said he can stop telling me he can kick goals, and he could go forward and start to kick goals for us. 

“He’s been able to do that really well and you’ve seen the energy he’s bringing to it. He’s very passionate and he’s got a natural flair for it.”

On the occasion of playing Essendon:

“It’s not so much the occasion, but in terms of the opposition, we don’t shy away from the fact that we’ve always loved playing against Collingwood, take the opportunity to play against Richmond, and also Essendon. 

“We had a big game last year where we had 80,000+ at the game, and we’ll get something maybe even a little more in the next game we play. We’ll certainly talk about it, the opposition and the rivalry — we’ll take that all in. 

“We understand there’s a lot of discussion around us as a footy team, a lot of match-ups to look forward to, the style of play we’ll try and bring to the game. But we’ve got a job to be able to get done. We’ve got to focus in on that.”

On Harry versus Ben (not sure if you’ve heard):

“It’ll be a nice byplay off to the side. They’ve stepped into it and embraced it, there’s been a lot of chat over that period of time. We can remove the rumour that they’re the same person, hasn’t that been floating around for a while? It’ll be a good contest. 

“Ben’s in really good form, he’s created some real stability for them down there and some real presence. We’ll have our hands full there, but I’m sure Harry’s looking forward to it.”

On his own battles against his brother:

“I do. It was hard not to take it a little personal, but you start to learn it’s not about that. It’s about your teammates beside you and you’ve got to make sure the brothers you’ve got are the ones that are beside you. You’ve got to deal with Mum afterwards, but if you can get through that on Monday, then you can generally get out the other side okay.”

On Marc Pittonet’s availability:

“He’s pretty close. He’ll have a run around today, but we’ll take a low risk approach with him. If he doesn’t get through, he won’t play . . . I think it’s about 50/50, no guarantees at this stage.”

On rewarding the team’s form:

“The form of the team the last two weeks have warranted their positions. The guys who are putting their hands up, Jack Carroll went back and played footy in the VFL on the weekend and was really impressive. He’s been sub for a couple of weeks, but the chance to get another full game under his belt with the form he’s in has been really positive. 

“When you’ve got some really good form, some winning form, it’s hard to change.”

On the holding the ball interpretation:

“It became clearer over the course of the week. The take is it’s going to be hotter on holding the ball. We can expect that. What we’ve asked for more clarity on - which we’ve got - providing examples on how they see things. 

“We get out here today and we get the chance to train it. We have umpires at our session every single week, so it’s our opportunity to show the examples to them but also talk through it. We want to operate within them, and if they’re the changes we need to make and it makes it better for our game, then so be it. 

“After a couple of weeks, when teams are starting to get a bit of an idea on how it’s going to be interpreted, then players are generally pretty good at being able to adapt.”