[ad_1]
Carlton coach Michael Voss admits his players are “devastated” following the side’s agonising one-point loss to arch rival Collingwood, which ended the Blues’ season.
The Blues were less than two minutes away from their first finals campaign since 2013 on Sunday, but a goal to Jamie Elliott put the Pies in front by a point, which proved the final margin in front of a nearly 90,000-strong MCG crowd.
Voss’ first season as Carlton coach now comes to an end without that elusive finals berth, but he said post-game he was determined to use it as motivation for 2023.
Watch every blockbuster AFL match this weekend Live & Ad-Break Free In-Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
“It was fairly epic, wasn’t it? Brutal is another word. I just spoke to them about the process we went through. I mean, the game itself, I could throw almost any number at you and it’s in the positive for us,” he said.
“I said to them ‘look, let’s not forget about this moment, let’s not forget about it. Let’s use how we feel right now as a motivator.’
“When it gets a bit hard through the year or you’ve got to turn up for another session or feel like you need to do an extra recovery, this is what you do it for, because you miss by that much.”
After a 8-2 win-loss record to start the season, the Blues were in the mix for a top-four berth, but they lost five of their last six games and ultimately missed out on eighth spot by just 0.6 per cent.
Voss said the club was bitterly disappointed with the final result.
“They’re devastated. We didn’t want this season to end, we felt like we had more in us,” he said.
“Clearly when we were in the position we were we wanted to play finals footy. We fought pretty hard as a footy club for a long period of time to get us back into a place like that, so they’ll feel that.
“We’ve got a lot to like out of out of that game, but in the end, when it came down to key moments, we couldn’t get it done. That’s going to hurt for a bit.”
Still, Voss was confident the side was now headed in the right direction after a turbulent period that saw several senior coaches sacked and change at board level before he was ultimately appointed ahead of the 2022 season.
“I feel like we’ve been able to create that significant change, but we just don’t walk away with the thing that we really wanted, which was to play finals,” he said.
“I don’t mind saying that we had a goal to play finals, that’s OK. Why are we so afraid of being able to say that? We would’ve liked to have gotten there and we’re really disappointed that we haven’t been able to.
“We’ll get back to work and we’ll go pretty hard.”
[ad_2]
Source link
