Carlton coach Michael Voss has defended the decision to play “amazing human” Sam Docherty in the elimination final loss to Brisbane, just 183 days after the defender ruptured his ACL.
Docherty racked up 16 touches, two clearances and kicked a goal that saw him mobbed by teammates late in the 28-point defeat.
But he was one of six changes to the Blues side that was demolished in a first half beating as Brisbane jumped out to a 60-0 lead.
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Voss stood by the selection of Docherty, and instead heaped praise on the 30-year-old’s remarkable recovery and will to return to the field in 2024.
“I sat in front of the bloke when he had cancer. He said he was going to play Round 1. I thought he was mad then; I thought he was mad on this one,” Voss said in his post-match press conference.
“On both occasions he’s been able to get it done.
“When the guy sits in front of you after going through that and says ‘I can do this’, you tend to believe them.”
The Blues coach was clearly in awe of Docherty’s determination and drive.
“He’s an amazing human being isn’t he? Wow,” Voss said.
“Really proud of what he did. It was incredible.
“A lot of people doubt him, doubted the process.
“I watched this bloke go to work over six months and I reckon it was about two weeks in, and he goes ‘I’m coming back for finals’. And I said, ‘Mate, you are mad. Seriously’.
“And he just set his goal on it. He consulted everything. He went through everything. He terrorised high performance, terrorised our medical team, terrorised the coaches, but he’s just got that dogged determination and he wasn’t going to miss it.
“To see what he was able to do and get back and play, just sort of says the resilience of the man.
“I’m just really pleased he’s got through it. I can breathe now a little bit.”
Voss said while he understood the criticism of playing Docherty in such a high pressure game off little match play, he had no issue with the call.
“We have all the context. We see him every day, we see how he’s progressing every day,” he defended.
“The only one mandate put over it at the time was like ‘Mate, you cannot miss a step. There can be not one thing go wrong in this for us to even entertain remotely that we should go there’ (and he play finals).
“He was up for that.
“He acknowledged that he needed to get through some crucial steps.
“There wasn’t a milestone that he had to miss. He fortunately had a very, very good rehabilitation process.”
But AFL greats Garry Lyon and Nathan Buckley didn’t agree with the decision “roll the dice” and bring Docherty straight in, along with a raft of other changes for the do-or-die blockbuster.
“If you’re bringing in six changes, they need to be pretty fit. Now Docherty hasn’t played since Opening Round. That wasn’t the right call,” Buckley said.
“It wasn’t the right call for Sam Docherty. It wasn’t the right call for Carlton.”
“When you’ve got to play Sam Docherty in an elimination final after he did his knee in Round 1 and hasn’t played since … that tells you where they’re at,” Lyon added of the Blues injury woes.
“That says where they were at – they were desperate coming in.”
Carlton had struggled in the final rounds of the season with injury, with some matches played while missing up to 13 of their regular starting side.
But they regained a host of big names including Harry McKay, Adam Cerra, Zac Williams and Mitch McGovern for the Lions clash, while big man Tom De Koning returned from his injury lay-off as the sub.
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