A FEEL-GOOD day.
Michael Voss has made no secret of how much he loves his team taking part in the Good Friday SuperClash, and Carlton's AFL Senior Coach was even more delighted with how his team approached the game in a resounding win.
Here's what he had to say.
On the occasion:
“It’s obviously a very special day, we’re really lucky and have enormous gratitude to be involved in this special occasion. To be able to make something that’s a bit bigger than the game, it’s not just about the four points - we come into this game about bringing purpose and bringing joy to others.
“Throughout the course of the week, you start to realise it’s not us putting smiles on their face: they’re putting smiles on our face.
“The hardship they go through, the little things they do, continuing to show up and put a smile on your face. It’s worthwhile acknowledging the North Melbourne Football Club: they do an amazing job being able to put this together, the whole week is pretty special. We’re really grateful to them for us being part of this, and we obviously want to keep this as a permanent fixture because it’s pretty special to be part of.”
On the game itself:
“As far as the performance goes, it was a really consistent performance. From our point of view, it’s something we’ve been trying to attain for a bit. A credit to the boys for being able to keep believing in what we’re about, we’ve been unwavering in that. We’ve been able to execute in that.
“We got the win last week, this one was more impressive again. We had a more even performance and we were more consistent with the way we wanted to execute across the whole day.”
On a big win in the contested battle:
“Other than trying to give it a focus, but we put a focus on it every week - especially against a team that’s a very contested team. They’ve got a lot of bulls in their team, and we knew what was coming.
“Sometimes when you’re not winning, it puts a cloud over what’s going well - what has been going well is our mids have been pretty good. Tom’s been in good form, George as you’ve seen, Cerra has maybe been a bit in the background, ‘Crippa’ has taken his turn.
“We’ve had a more consistent performance through our midfield, and in the last couple of weeks they’ve given us a bit of strength in there.”
On George Hewett’s form:
“He’s been pretty good the last few weeks, to be fair. His start to the season has been quite amazing. He had a role to do today as well, so to be able to execute that and still impact the way that he is, it’s a credit to his preparation.
“He’s an absolute pro, nobody puts more detail into his prep than George. He’s a much-loved man at our Club, and the boys love playing with him.”
On Tom De Koning’s showing:
“I thought Tom was good, that’s not taking away from [Xerri]. Tom knew what task was coming his way. I’m not going to say he set himself, because the rucks are always setting themselves against one another.
“But he knew the impact in there - together with ‘Youngy’ coming in to help out - was going to be important in the game. To give first looks to our mids as well as getting some drive out of there on second balls, it was an important part of the game.”
On the team’s best showing so far in 2025:
“There was a bit in it, which was pleasing to see. That was our most consistent performance, there’s no doubt - the most compelling one we’ve played. I think it’s mainly because yes Charlie kicked his goals, but there was a spread of forwards that were able to hit the scoreboard.
“It wasn’t just that they hit the scoreboard, it was that they bought into their jobs and brought an enormous amount of pressure. I felt our pressure across the whole night, we really dialled it up. Every ball they got, we were able to put pressure on it and in the end, you hope that overwhelms a team.
“We were really consistent with that, as we were with our selfless nature in the way we played. They’re continual things that we want to be known for, and what we want our identity to be part of.”
On the small forwards:
“With ‘Durds’, just having him and ‘Mots’ play in the same team, they haven’t done a lot over the last three years. The more they can play together, be familiar with their roles and bounce off one another - you can see they like kicking it to one another. They live in the same household, they’re really close.
“Seeing Will White come in and buy into that energy, Zac kicking goals as well - the pressure and energy they brought, they got the reward but I was really impressed with the selfless nature they went about the game.”
On Sam Docherty’s omission:
“It was measuring up against the other guys in the team. That’s ultimately what it comes down to. We’re being really clear with Sam and where he is, he’ll play a big part for us throughout the season - there’s no doubt about that.”
On Patrick Cripps spending more time forward:
“I think he was trying to centre it but he’s trying to claim the goal anyway… It’s one of those ones in terms of sharing the load and sharing it across the whole team, it’s obviously an important part. We’re not bound by it, but it’s certainly something we can go to if we need to.
“Not having that extra tall down there lends to him being able to do that, if we need it. Having more goalkickers is something we’d love to get into our side.”
On Harry McKay’s potential availability:
“He’s been back at the Club and he’s been training fine. I think he trained really well today: he’ll follow all the protocols he needs to, if he ticks those boxes then he’ll be available.”
