Disappointed Carlton coach Michael Voss says he’s proud of his club’s “adapting and overcoming” this year, but claims there’s “no better experience” for a developing team than the pain of being knocked out deep into a finals series.
The Blues’ stunning surge across the back-end of the season ended on Saturday night, going down to the Brisbane Lions by 16 points in a hard-fought preliminary final at the Gabba.
Voss’ troops sat 15th on the ladder after Round 13 before winning nine straight games to make the finals then pull off epic wins over Sydney and Melbourne to make a preliminary final.
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Asked if he felt like Carlton had spent all its petrol tickets towards the end, Voss told reporters post-match: “No, not at all. We’ll sit with the disappointment.
“If you asked me this question 14 weeks ago, it’s probably a completely different answer. But as the season unfolded and as our form came together, we had that really collective shift together. It seems like we could really compete against the best teams in the competition – the last couple of weeks only reinforced that in our own minds.
“We came up here with a real goal to get this job done – and we’ve fallen short. We’re extremely disappointed. We came up here thinking our best was good enough. Credit to Brisbane they bounced after the first quarter – a side that’s probably been at this a little longer than us in terms of opportunities like this – they were able to correct themselves, steady themselves and turn the game around.
“We’re having all these great experiences together and we’ve had a lot of these great moments where we’ve learned a lot about ourselves. I’ve talked a lot about adapting and overcoming – and we’ve certainly done that as a football club. To see how that’s transpired across the year has been incredibly impressive to watch.
“It’s why I’m loath to share my own story because I think our story is well and truly enough. No matter what story I tell and no matter what experience I can share, feeling the hurt and feeling like you’re close and like you’re getting an opportunity and having that ripped away from you – there’s no better experience than that.
“What I hope it turns into is that we’re a hungry football club and a hungry football team and we want to figure at this point of the season more often to give ourselves that chance.”
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The Blues blitzed the Lions at the start of Saturday night’s game, kicking the first five goals of the game. But a seasoned Brisbane outfit clicked after quarter-time, booting eight goals to one across the second and third terms to set up the win.
Voss said his side produced an “extraordinarily impressive start” that generated an “electric” atmosphere at the Gabba, but lamented his side’s inability to maintain its intensity at the contest, as well as its polish with ball in hand, after quarter-time.
Dual All-Australian David King said while Blues fans would be hurting, they should also be stoked with their team’s progress in 2023.
“Carlton were brave, they were fantastic out of the blocks. I feel disappointed for them to finish the season like this, but they’ve had a wonderful year and they’ll build on that for sure,” King told Fox Footy post-match.
“You just want your football club to make you proud – and I think all Carlton fans would be proud and proud of the efforts of the group, both in the back-half of the season and again tonight.
“It looked wobbly halfway through the season, but it’s really stable now, a great program, great leadership on and off the field.
“You feel like this is the Carlton we’ve known of probably 20 years ago. They’ve looked the best they’ve looked for a long time.”
The Blues aren’t expected to be too active during the upcoming trade period after making a prelim for the first time in 23 seasons.
But Voss stated his club’s list management team wouldn’t sit on its hands.
“That’s the great thing about our list demographic. You go across our team and they stick together and they have stuck together,” he said.
“We’ve experienced some real tough adversity as a club and we’ve been able to navigate our way through that. We had some of that this year, but it’s been that collective moment that’s been really impressive for us.
“We feel like we’ve got some really important pieces there, but obviously we’ve still got a bit to get after.”
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