‘We’ve been targeted all week’: Voss’ passionate Blues message after ‘hard fought win’

“Who would be a coach, hey? Who wants to do this? Seriously, you’ve gotta be a madman.”

A relieved Michael Voss can see the funny side to the ups and downs of coaching.

But the Carlton coach was ultimately proud of the way his team fought off a fast-finishing Tigers, saying there’s added satisfaction for the club after being “targeted” during a turbulent week.

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

The Blues again faded in the second half, but this time escaped with a tense four-point win over old rival Richmond in Thursday night’s traditional Round 1 opener at the MCG to even the ledger at 1-1 on their season.

It followed a bruising 63-point loss to Sydney to open their campaign last week, as Voss’ side was heavily criticised for giving up 12 goals in the third quarter including leaked remarks from ex-skipper Sam Docherty on a podcast that caused a stir.

A passionate Voss said post-match it was extra special to bank the four points, given “rivalries are hard fought wins” and with “the competition not settled yet,” in addition to it coming after the stormy week that was.

“Tonight was a little bit about our club. We’ve been targeted throughout the whole week — both inside and out — and we get away for a win,” he told reporters on Thursday night.

“I’m just pleased our supporters can walk away and have a smile on their face and wear their jumper with pride and have their scarves around their neck.

“We want to keep bringing that and hopefully there’s more opportunities to be able to do that.”

But Voss said the club didn’t use the outside noise as extra motivation this week.

“Not really, because what we want to create is moments inside the four walls,” he said.

“We want to continue to celebrate our people and all those moments. We want to bring everyone on the journey with us.

“We’re a really fortunate football club in that we know how to energise stadiums, we have a really passionate supporter base and we want to play for them. We look forward to every time we come out, that we get the opportunity to play in front of our supporters.

“So I feel like this one is for our club, I really do. It’s hard fought, it wasn’t exactly the way we wanted it, there was no bow on it.

“We had to work for it and we got it. I’m just really pleased for our club we were able to do that.”

The Carlton boss said there’d been an internal “shift” at the club and emphasised the need to celebrating wins, no matter how big or small, even though there’s plenty to tidy up on field.

“I can’t stress enough we spend a lot of time within our group ensuring that we value what is happening on the inside,” he said.

“We see what’s happening inside and we’ve seen the shift in that energy. This meant a lot to our players tonight to be able to get the job done.

“But we’re not looking at it through rose coloured glasses either. There’s some realness in where we are, we accept that we’re not the finished product and have work to do.

“But what we won’t do is not celebrate when we need to. You work very hard for those moments to sing that song and have those moments in the locker room together doing something like that.

“So we will celebrate it and we won’t be taking our eyes off that no matter what anyone says.”

The Blues snuck home despite losing the inside 50 battle -16 (60-44) and kicking just one goal after half-time, while Richmond converted a wasteful 9.17 in front of the big sticks on the night.

Voss conceded his side was “hanging on” in the fourth quarter during the Tigers’ late charge but was “probably doing it for most of the second half”.

“Richmond kept pressing and they owned territory on field. You get criticised for last week and not being able to put together a third quarter. You go away and reflect on that and it’s clearly something we’ve got to get better at,” he added.

“But what I did ask our boys to do was fight. When teams surge, our ability to be able to hold went longer than I would like, so there’s some reinforcement there.

“It just meant we had our backs to the wall. All we could do was fight out of it. You’ve got to begin somewhere, don’t you? So that’s where we begin.”

Voss said he was ultimately “pleased” — not “relieved” — but admitted he found it difficult watching the final few minutes with “no control what happens next” including Tom Lynch kicking a goal from a blocking free kick that got Richmond back within a kick.

“You can judge for yourself whether you think that was a free kick or not, I’ll let you go to work on that one,” the Blues coach continued.

“But in terms of being able to activating what we needed late in the game, we activated pretty well and obviously were able to get the win in the end.”

The Blues face Melbourne in a fortnight’s time after their Round 2 bye as Carlton continues to adapt to a quicker game style utilising more handball and the addition of several new players.

“Clearly we don’t execute for long enough, that’s really what it comes down to. Our mode over the last two weeks … you’re watching a different style of play, you can see that,” Voss said.

“Our ability to be able to keep doing that for that longer period is a question being asked of us right now.

“But when we needed to shift modes, we did. When we needed to hold, we did. And that’s something to celebrate, so we’ll celebrate it.

“Now we’ve got effectively two weeks before our next game and we go into that little bye 1-1.

“We’ll have three days off and you sort of walk in and feel good about yourself.”