Carlton’s appointment of Voss followed the ex-Lion coach’s patient eight-year stint as assistant coach at Port Adelaide, where he retooled and learnt the nuances of coaching that he hadn’t known when appointed, prematurely, by the Lions’ board in late 2008 following Leigh Matthews’ decision to step down.
Carlton have a vastly more experienced and sagacious coach than the one who foundered on the rocks of his inexperience at the Lions – and poor decisions by the club in recruiting, particularly the signing of over-talented and strife-prone Brendan Fevola in 2009 – and was sacked mid-season in 2013.
At Carlton, Voss has brought an understanding of his own – and others’ – limitations. To educate himself at Port required humility, and it was this quality that Voss modelled for players and staff. At Cook’s behest, Carlton have adopted “humility” – hardly part of the club’s strutting DNA – as an official value, extolling Voss as the standard-bearer for that virtue.
“He’s big on that [humility] as well,” said Luke Power, who has the distinction of having known “Vossy” as teammate, as his player (2009-10) at Brisbane and then as his VFL coach at Carlton.
Power said that as Lions’ coach, Voss “wanted to tell everyone what he knew”. At Carlton, he coached with the recognition that players absorbed information in different ways and at different rates, and had adjusted accordingly. “He’s learned not everyone is on that level.”
Power says Voss is a relationships coach, but one who commands the group. “The guy has got huge presence in front of the group.″
In his days coaching the Lions, the ex-champion did not delegate as effectively, as Lion people from that time have acknowledged; one could contend that his biggest blunder was taking the job with zero experience, when West Coast had offered him an assistant’s job.
And that he didn’t have the level of support around him as at Carlton.
Luke Power says Voss is a relationships coach, but one who commands the group.Credit: Getty Images
At Carlton, Voss is supported by a CEO who has seen it all in Cook, by senior assistant Ash Hansen – who offers tactical acumen – and by football boss Brad Lloyd and his seasoned assistants, including Tom Lonergan (ex-Geelong), Aaron Hamill (backs), Tim Clarke (midfield), Jordan Russell (forwards), Power (VFL/head of development) and Brad Ebert (development).
Voss took the further step of engaging a mentor from outside the club and – in what has remained largely unknown outside a small group at Carlton – he has been coached by three-club CEO (Richmond, Melbourne, Fremantle) Cameron Schwab since late 2022, Schwab having taken up a role advising corporates and other leaders and who offers Voss a regular sounding board.
In his first season, Voss regularly conversed with his candid old Brisbane coach and former Carlton premiership coach and great, Robert Walls, who had been keen to see him installed at the Blues.
If Voss has changed his methods, his methods also have changed Carlton.
An AFL executive, who recently saw Voss deal with Laura Kane and detail some coaching issues (and not authorised to have his name on record), reckoned that one of Voss’ traits was decidedly un-Carlton-like; that he eschewed club politics altogether. “There’s only one game for Vossy,” said the official.
Power added: “He’s not a political guy.”
