Carlton coach Michael Voss is back at his old stomping ground, the Gabba, for his side's clash with Brisbane on Friday night.
The Blues have recalled veteran and 2025 best-and-fairest winner George Hewett to the side after a dominant stretch in the VFL, averaging 33.7 disposals in his three games at the level. Hewett was a surprise omission for Carlton in Round 6, with confusion among fans and onlookers as to why the 30-year-old was chosen to face the axe after the club's poor start to the season.
During Thursday's press conference, Voss said Hewett had returned to the side to help battle the Lions' deep midfield depth.
"(Hewett's) been really strongly over the last couple of weeks, he's added a couple more things into his game in the last few weeks which we'll hopefully see in this game," Voss said.
"He's been a really valuable teammate for us. You bang the door down to selection through form, and he's certainly done that.
“We know what we get with George, he's very reliable. You've got to factor in what our balance is looking like, he brings a strong contest game. When we talk about Brisbane, they're strong around stoppages and we've got to get our hands on the ball first.”
The Blues' positive first halves and horror second halves have been well-documented this year, but despite being 1-7, Voss believes his side has shown in games that they can play a brand of football that "stacks up".
"We've got a standard for how we want to play," he said. "What has been proven is that when we play it, it stacks up. When we venture off it, when we go away from it and we stray and get distracted and begin to think about outcomes, well, we end up getting the result we deserve in the end.
"We are going to have to fight that and resist some of those temptations, keep locked in on each other and we will get the job done from there.
“What we tend to do is look at recent form; we had a disappointing week last week. Previously to that, we'd been relatively consistent outside of a few minutes, which has cost us dearly. Trying to replicate that intensity against what is a really good team that asks a lot in all phases of the game, we're going to have to make sure we're on.
"It's been frustrating, but at the same time we have used those moments to find marginal gains to get better. That's probably where we are at when you're living on that knife's edge in terms of performances. We have a quarter like we did last week and it's extremely disappointing. You've gotta go to work on your game and defensively we let ourselves down."
