Former Carlton coach Michael Voss indicated that there was enough talent in the list to succeed this year if everything was executed perfectly.
In a sit-down interview with AFL Media, Voss discussed his decision to resign after a 1-8 start to the season and point to the wash-up of the Round 8 loss as the time where he started to consider his future.
Voss also delved into the areas he felt had lifted during his time at the helm, and said he was “at peace” with the decision.
“It was always going to take that perfect execution to get it right,” Voss told AFL Media.
“At the moment, I thought and even (footy director) Chris (Davies) and those who have observed it closely over the last little period of time would acknowledge there has been a real shift in maybe what is going on in the locker room and the positivity out of that but we acknowledge the gaps as well.
“Our job is to execute and we haven't been able to go do that consistently enough and I'm not talking about a year or a month, I'm talking clearly in-game and we've ridden that up-and-down far too much.
“When you look at your own performance, we haven't been able to crack that part. We've been able to play at a really high top end, but for not long enough. You have to ride waves of momentum and we've had periods we've done that well but clearly the last two years, it hasn't been good enough.
“It's a changing list and it got acknowledged that to bring us to a more contemporary group with the way we played.
“It requires personnel change and I felt like there was enough there to make us more than competitive throughout this year. I didn't know where that would take us other than ‘let's ride the journey and see how far it takes us'.”
Voss had a discussion with his manager in Brisbane ahead of last Friday night's game to crystallise his viewpoint, going through the loss to the Lions aware it would be his last at the helm.
Maintaining that he was never coaching for his job given the club is bigger than the individual, Voss admitted the dialogue from stakeholders gave him an indication of where the situation sat.
“Your read in these situations is often what they don't say not what they do say and I read enough into what they did say that I was on shaky ground and the inevitable became clearer but the fighter and competitor in you wants to take that as far as you possibly can,” Voss said.
“During the week last week was the first time I sat with the result from the week before and thought about where the group was at, where the club currently was and where they needed to go and when thinking about that more deeply and reflecting on that, I felt it was time to have those conversations.”
Voss reinforced that there was no animosity towards the club and believes the playing group is in a happy place despite the external noise.
The coach departure could provide the circuit-breaker for players to become less fixated on results, according to Voss.
“I can guarantee it's a better place than I walked into. It's like comparing solo vs alignment. There's no accountability vs full accountability – there is two different things,” Voss said.
“Sub-standard training standards to elite training standards.
“The frustrating thing within all that is that the end up measure is the end measure we like to tick over is the ‘w' and we haven't been able to do that enough. The consistency of being able to play the way we want to play is not where it's needed.
“As a leader, you need to be able to see it and not be blinded.”
The outgoing coach also addressed Sam Docherty's comments following the Opening Round loss.
The former captain's comments inflamed panic among the Blues' supporter base after a disappointing start to the season and Voss said he “should have known better”.
“When you think about ‘what is the conversation around Carlton, what is the energy around it?' We are trying to build a supporter base, put bums on seats and get people to come and watch their football team and be really proud of it and something we endeavour to do is play a style of football our supporters can be really proud of,” Voss said.
“Things like that, they don't help, but at the same time, it's not something you become pre-occupied by. What I'd say in ‘Doc's' instance, is he just should know better about what it's like to be that person inside the building and I just thought that would be a more insightful conversation rather than join the masses. That's the type of energy thing we need to shift.”
