Hot Topic Michael Voss - Coaching in 2026. Should he remain beyond that?

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Do you think that is Voss or the the fact that we have such an appalling record of sacking coaches?

If we are after a senior coach, then it's our record. An assistant, then it's difficult to attract anybody with a good reputation to a losing club under a senior coach with a losing record. The exception to this would be someone who has an eye on the head coaching role and that isn't someone who is going to prop up the head coach.

 

[Worm4]

He is 30 games into his Carlton coaching career.
Give him a break. He hasn't got a magic wand .
Can you imagine hawthorn getting rid of clarkson 30 games in ?
Show some patience people.

 

[Gointocarlton]

I've lost faith in Voss. I was expecting something different tonight and it was the same old garbage that isn't working. Absolutely much of it is on the players but even when we're not committing skill errors the gameplan just isn't there to position us to win.

Teams with a good gameplan can play like dog s**t and either eek out wins or look much more competent thqn what we do. It's what they can fall back on and know it'll hold them in good stead.

Therefore, in my opinion, it's both the list and the gameplan. List doesn't suit modern football- we've gone over this in every other thread a thousand times by now - but the gameplan doesn't either and the gameplan doesn't suit the list either.

Think of a triangle. You have modern footy at the top pointy end and on the left you have Voss and his gameplan and on the right you have the list. The bottom sides are about an equal length from the top but they're poles apart.

Voss just hasn't adjusted to the new rules and how it has dramatically shifted midfield play and both sides of the ball.

In the two years prior to this one he had tremendous success in taking absolute bulls to the top of their games. He was a huge reason for why Cripps and Wines won the Brownlow medal.

If we look over at Port this year you'll notice something. Wines isn't the dominant midfielder that he was in the past. He's still very, very good but the game is moving away from his (and Cripps) skillset. Their list management has been outstanding and they have two young electric players who are the personification of the modern game - Zak Butters and Connor Rozee. They've assumed the top of the pops in their midfield this year while we have nothing like that in our midfield.

Our list management is a huge issue as it significantly impacts the ability of the coach to do his job. And Voss is working at a significant disadvantage out of the gate because of it. But he needs to make it work and he hasn't been able to do it.

We were fantastic in the first half of last year as coaches learned the new rules and implemented the systems necessary to win with them. However, as teams have now fully adjusted we're now seeing how dreadfully Ill equipped we are to combat them.

We are four solid players from where we need to jbe. We need a ruck-KPF to spell with TDK. We need a dynamic midfielder (Butters/Rozee) and we need forward flankers.

Vossy has two games to turn it around. If we lose both the Bombers and Suns games I believe he will be canned at the bye.

But the truth is that the solution isn't on the list nor is it available in other coaches.

It's not Austin's fault as the damage was done prior. But he is the man that has to fix it as the only one who can is the list manager.

--..

Why two weeks?

If we lose the next two games Carlton will set a new record that the media will play up and show no mercy on. We will break the consecutive loses record after a 100-poiint wjn.

No coach can survive that

Couple of things:

• Is the triangle you mention above equilateral, scalene or Isosceles?
• You mention game plan, I actually think Voss and the coaches have had to devise something low risk to cater for the poorly skilled, one paced (slow) midfielders we have. I am sure we can go back and forth on this and won't change each others minds so we'll park that one.
• Recruiting - After initially thinking SOS was a saviour, in hindsight, SOS absolutely butchered so many of his picks and trades. I remember him making a comment once (I think it was on Footy Classified) about how building a list to play finals is easy (he said something like "I could do it like that" whilst clicking his fingers) and that his focus was on building a list for sustained success. Well I tell you what, he did effin neither. I won't go into chapter and verse about every pick but if people think our list is solid they are dreaming. Sure there are a couple of superstars there but the support cast falls away very sharply. As for Austin? He didn't come in yesterday, he has been there a while now and he too has managaged to butcher a few also

We have not addressed:

• Speed
• Elite basic skills

You want to talk modern game, the above two points coupled with endurance running are the pillars of the modern game and we are terrible at both.
We can keep sacking coaches if we want, that's fine, but I tell you what, analyse our list man by man and make a note of how many of them have seen out 3, 4 even 5 senior coaches? Why do you think that is? Have we made that many errors in coaching selections?
Over and Out.

 

[Accidental genius]

Unfortunately, I think it is time for a refresh...

new senior coach...he then picks his own assistants

delist the perennially injured
delist the pea hearts/wont commit to contact (we all know who they are)

Let the new coach decide the fate of the remaining players and reshape the list moving forwards.

 

[passmark]

I don’t think Hardwick has another senior coaching gig in him.
He might be an advisor or mentor but he’s done at the pointy end.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

My biggest issue is that Voss had a year to evaluate our list and we collectively decided that we should throw money at our guns to stay and tweak the list adding only Acres.

He knew we lacked foot speed and opted for a quick length of the field ball movement game plan that would expose us badly if it broke down.

Not one thing was done to address the glaringly obvious one paced on ball brigade. I was concerned at the time but hoped that the talent off our top liners would overcome this one nagging issue. Instead, our top liners have fallen apart with the rest of the team.

Remember that Voss declared we are a contested clearance team last year, over and over and that is what we want to be known as.

Now it seems we are supposed to be a quick ball movement team, like you can just add that layer in an on off-season without changing the personnel.

Now we are neither. We lose the contested footy stats because only a portion of our list are built for it, and we turnover the ball because only a portion of our list have the skills to move it.

We have some players who are neither strong enough or fast enough to play either facet unless under so much pressure their skills fail.

Too many times we have coaches coming in to add finals to a team that are close to winning, then discovering that group aren't suited to the plan they want to use so we have to strip it back to make them fit the current trends.

Malthouse tried this. All that happened is the value of our players went down and we started to break the list apart. Here we are again. Voss is trying to get our group to play a style that other teams have a head start on us with, and do it with a team that isn't particularly well suited to that style. He has sucked all of the enjoyment out of the game for them.

That's my huge concern. We have to strip it back to change the personnel, in order to play a style that other teams are far better at.

When does somebody come in, look at our talent and innovate to get the best out of them?

 

[btdg]

In the past we sack first and look later only to find that there's not a great deal of options for us. Leppitsch would be the the ideal choice but again head coach is not really the problem and never has been with us. It's the football department as a whole and our sack coach mentality is the source of all our problems.

Voss has a lot of good qualities, but like all people he doesn't bring a full range of good qualities to the table and enough to do it all on his own.

I'd like to think that Voss is someone we can help improve and someone we can make a success of. That's the path we need to go down. I don't think sacking him is an option unless he's got real problems. I think sacking him compounds our big problem. The elephant in the room is and always has been our reputation.

I think you are close to the mark, but the elephant in the room for me is not our reputation.

We have never had any problems getting big names from outside the club. That applies to players: from Judd (the biggest, and when were at rock bottom) to more recent acquisitions. That applies to coaches: see Malthouse, Pagan. That applies to administrators: see Cook, Russell, etc. We always get our man, far more than other clubs... and that is our biggest problem.

The big problem is that we are ALWAYS looking outside, seeing that the grass is greener and chasing the next big saviour, rather than developing what we have internally, and again this applies to coaches, players and administrators. Fitness issues: go get 'the best'. Midfield not performing? Let's get a back pocket from GWS on $900k per year to play midfield... no wait, lets get a 5th stringer from Sydney... no wait, lets get Freo's 3rd best guy, and schlep our own developing midfielders off to other clubs or consign them to the reserves.

Right now our coaching is atrocious. Our gameplan and strategy is the worst I have ever seen. Our player performance is the worst I have seen (seriously- which players are in form at the moment? the answer might literally be none). Our skills are atrocious.

A third of the people here want to sack Voss. A third want to delist 15 players (in a year where we only have one draft pick in the top 60). A third think we need new assistant coaches.

I don't think that's any of it. As a club, we have to figure out how to turn things around internally. Review, learn and improve. MAybe Voss isn't the long term guy, but we have to get better at turnign things around inside imo, not always be looking for the saviour from beyond.

 

[xDQ82x]

I get the anger and frustration. I think it is the lack of hope that is killing us all.

We all expected to be a decent football side this year, the reality is we are far from it.

I have spoken to mate at length on this and he is still adamant a large portion of our list just don't care enough. They are happy coming to work collecting their pay packets and that's enough.

I'm more on the side it's list than coach.

Cause I can't see anyone on our list that could change our sides fortunes. Dow was good and in my opinion he should play but like someone said he isn't Chris Judd so if he plays or not it won't change the outcome. I could say the same for at least a dozen more.

Rebuild, so let Voss do it. Think outside the box and get creative and maybe we can find a way we can spike in 2 - 3 years.

 

[gbatman]

I think you are close to the mark, but the elephant in the room for me is not our reputation.

We have never had any problems getting big names from outside the club. That applies to players: from Judd (the biggest, and when were at rock bottom) to more recent acquisitions. That applies to coaches: see Malthouse, Pagan. That applies to administrators: see Cook, Russell, etc. We always get our man, far more than other clubs... and that is our biggest problem.

The big problem is that we are ALWAYS looking outside, seeing that the grass is greener and chasing the next big saviour, rather than developing what we have internally, and again this applies to coaches, players and administrators. Fitness issues: go get 'the best'. Midfield not performing? Let's get a back pocket from GWS on $900k per year to play midfield... no wait, lets get a 5th stringer from Sydney... no wait, lets get Freo's 3rd best guy, and schlep our own developing midfielders off to other clubs or consign them to the reserves.

Right now our coaching is atrocious. Our gameplan and strategy is the worst I have ever seen. Our player performance is the worst I have seen (seriously- which players are in form at the moment? the answer might literally be none). Our skills are atrocious.

A third of the people here want to sack Voss. A third want to delist 15 players (in a year where we only have one draft pick in the top 60). A third think we need new assistant coaches.

I don't think that's any of it. As a club, we have to figure out how to turn things around internally. Review, learn and improve. MAybe Voss isn't the long term guy, but we have to get better at turnign things around inside imo, not always be looking for the saviour from beyond.

When we get big names, we do it at a cost, we have to buy them.

Judd came to us for money. There were clubs he wanted but we forked out a fortune to satisfy West Coast and we paid him a huge salary which would go on to hamstring us.

Pagan was on the outer at North, god knows we probably paid him to get him, having a Carlton connection helped no doubt but the reputation wasn't there then and didn't bare so much weight as it does now.

Malthouse came on big money and again, we surrounded him with nobodies, the football department we put around him was dwarfed by what Collingwood supplied him with. He brought two blokes with him but we could not do anymore. We cleaned out a bit when he left but never improved a great deal. Malthouse probably had a quarter of what he had at Collingwood in terms of quality resources.

The only way we get someone with a reputation is with money. Good young people won't want to come here because we ruin reputations and we sack. High profile people come here only if we pay up. We are not a place where people who are good at what the do want to end up at. Going to Carlton is a risky career move and everyone knows it.

The fact we are not a destination club for off field people is the source of all our problems.

If Voss was at Collingwood he would have a top line senior assistant and some really good assistants and tactical people around him as well as years of better recruiting better in touch with the game and where it was heading and recruiting with direction which he hasn't got at Carlton.

The closes thing we have ever done in 23 years to support a coach was get Alan Richardson in to help Ratten and that still didn't make up for the years and years of carrying an atrocious recruiting team and the rest of the coaching and development staff being second rate as well as not having a list manager at all.

As we have done with All coaches who have walked through the door the last 23 years, we are doing our best to see that they fail.

 

[Franc de Borges]

The most compelling argument for keeping Voss is that we need to stop sacking coaches. Nothing to do with his skills or his ability to turn it around.

He’s clearly not up to it and we don’t have time to waste.

 

[btdg]

When we get big names, we do it at a cost, we have to buy them.

Judd came to us for money. There were clubs he wanted but we forked out a fortune to satisfy West Coast and we paid him a huge salary which would go on to hamstring us.

Pagan was on the outer at North, god knows we probably paid him to get him, having a Carlton connection helped no doubt but the reputation wasn't there then and didn't bare so much weight as it does now.

Malthouse came on big money and again, we surrounded him with nobodies, the football department we put around him was dwarfed by what Collingwood supplied him with. He brought two blokes with him but we could not do anymore. We cleaned out a bit when he left but never improved a great deal. Malthouse probably had a quarter of what he had at Collingwood in terms of quality resources.

The only way we get someone with a reputation is with money. Good young people won't want to come here because we ruin reputations and we sack. High profile people come here only if we pay up. We are not a place where people who are good at what the do want to end up at. Going to Carlton is a risky career move and everyone knows it.

The fact we are not a destination club for off field people is the source of all our problems.

If Voss was at Collingwood he would have a top line senior assistant and some really good assistants and tactical people around him as well as years of better recruiting better in touch with the game and where it was heading and recruiting with direction which he hasn't got at Carlton.

The closes thing we have ever done in 23 years to support a coach was get Alan Richardson in to help Ratten and that still didn't make up for the years and years of carrying an atrocious recruiting team and the rest of the coaching and development staff being second rate as well as not having a list manager at all.

As we have done with All coaches who have walked through the door the last 23 years, we are doing our best to see that they fail.

I think the money aspect is tangential.

Whenever you get a big name they come on big money (and deserve it). High profile people don't go anywhere unless you pay up. With a soft cap in place, that fact alone reinforces the need to look within, not constantly look outside for solutions.

But i think you still jump to needing to go outside elsewhere. If our list management is performing poorly, we have to find ways of improving our current people, not poaching Agresta or whoever is next. Voss doesn't need a senior assistant (who will likely be high profile and cost money). He needs cheap junior analysts doing data work, breaking down film and simplifying his job, helping him find an edge

I think we need to stop the black and white thinkint about our people. Every Carlton player is either a spud or a star, with little in between. We talk about players 'making it' and forget that just getting on an AFL list = making it and they are playing for real, right now. Our recruiters aren't second rate... they are underperforming, etc.

 

[Jatz]

I don’t think Hardwick has another senior coaching gig in him.
He might be an advisor or mentor but he’s done at the pointy end.

With all due respect, the only person that would know that is him.

If he’s available and wants the challenge, I’d take him in a heartbeat.

 

[gbatman]

List management wise, the game changed half way through. The 666, kick in and stand rule have made the game more outside and greatly emphasised leg speed and agility.

Game has gone from you apply pressure and defend by keeping the opposition ball movement close to the boundary, getting numbers around the contest, getting numbers to the next contest. Can't do that anymore. You apply pressure now by winning the ball and going forward quickly but also by your ability to close down on your opponent with leg speed and effort.

It was evident by our teams defence structure that the changes in the game caught us off guard and by our recruiting and list structure.

We already had Cripps but brought in Kennedy, Setterfield, Hewett. Slow slow slow. Really tone deaf to where the game is or was heading.

I think some teams saw the changes coming and correctly identified how that would change the game.

I think Collingwood are where they are because they saw it coming and guess right how the game was going to change and have invested heavily in players with leg speed, are very competitive and have not restricted themselves to straight and narrow personalities as we have.

Our core group of players are still really good but we don't have leg speed, hard competitive types and highly skilled players who are willing over confident and rebellious enough to break the team rules for the benefit of the team.

Our list needs leg speed, needs small forwards, needs personalities who are going to go our and compete a little harder and ride on emotion a little more and lift those straight and narrow head droppers around them.

 

[gbatman]

I think the money aspect is tangential.

Whenever you get a big name they come on big money (and deserve it). High profile people don't go anywhere unless you pay up. With a soft cap in place, that fact alone reinforces the need to look within, not constantly look outside for solutions.

But i think you still jump to needing to go outside elsewhere. If our list management is performing poorly, we have to find ways of improving our current people, not poaching Agresta or whoever is next. Voss doesn't need a senior assistant (who will likely be high profile and cost money). He needs cheap junior analysts doing data work, breaking down film and simplifying his job, helping him find an edge

I think we need to stop the black and white thinkint about our people. Every Carlton player is either a spud or a star, with little in between. We talk about players 'making it' and forget that just getting on an AFL list = making it and they are playing for real, right now. Our recruiters aren't second rate... they are underperforming, etc.

Would Leppitsch and McCrae be on massive money at Collingwood. Both have huge reps. Bet you they are on good money but not the money it would cost us to get them.

Voss needs a senior assistant and what you mentioned there, he needs to be fully equipped. Not half arsed which is the Carlton way. If you want to work on analysis then you do it on our assistant coaches, their records and backgrounds. There's not much going for them to suggest they might be high level.

Think we have our head in the sand, or somewhere worse on this.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

It's not Austin's fault as the damage was done prior. But he is the man that has to fix it as the only one who can is the list manager.

Austin can't fall back on past selections by Silvagni to exonerate himself. He's been there long enough to start seeing the shape of things.

He opted to avoid the draft to get Saad and Cerra. He opted to spend on Williams and Hewett. He has tightened our cap by doing this and had a better each way on what we need to going forward. 2 slowish inside mids and 2 quick half backs, however one had a history of injury and he wanted to turn him into a midfielder based on one game.

We haven't tried to improve our ruck stocks in any meaningful way. We tried to get Weitering key defensive help with a late pick trade.

Before we sucked but with room in the cap. Now we suck with no room to move.

Yeah nah, Austin doesn't escape for his part.

They've all been exposed very quickly and shockingly.

 

[PumpyChowdown]

It doesn't matter. None of it matters. Just give up. It's easier. Renounce and emancipate yourself from the Groundhog Day hellscape that is the bottomless pit of misery and ineptitude of the Carlton Football Club.

 

[gbatman]

There is a good chance we are 3 years into a 4 year mini-rebuild. It happens, we've come to a point where we haven't got the list we need and it's time to hit the draft and let some of the player salaries simmer down. You'd probably count the Hollands, Binns, Lemmy draft as year one.

Now it's all about fixing the speed issues and bringing in young guys that we need.

Probably not that dissimilar to what Collingwood have done between their 2018 peak and stepping up last year.

This is probably what Brian Cook means when he spoke about us still having plenty of work to do.

 

[I AM CARLTON]

Did someone say Rebuild?


I don't care I love it........

 

[TENACIOUS]

Unpopular opinion...

Keep Voss...
Replace assistants...
Rebuild the list properly...

 

[JustaBattler]

Cook has his man from Geelong in the coaching group a 3 or is it for time premiership player for them. So he would have reliable feedback on Voss.
Cook also has experience in building a Club to a sustainable performance basis - he made it clear last year that the list was far from complete and unlike Sayers hasn't fed the flames of finals or bust nonsense - chook feed to sheeple.

It seems that I am one of the few who have never rated this list as a genuine contender - and even within the context of a fully available best set of players one can think of that are on the list - we have never seen them all on ground fit and firing together.

One thing I can say as a person new to this 'code' coming from a rugby background and enjoying the more analytical side of things - nothing has changed in the game of AFL except some rules around standing the mark/666 on top of a constant extending of the bench to make players able to run harder and after and longer because rotations that and a penchant for making the game ever more contact -free.

I say this after watching many games from the 70's and 80's and 90's as well as a fairly careful watch for the last 10 or so years in the so-called modern game - nothing has changed of real substance to game plan/strategy nothing.

SO all the comments about 'modern game' are too my eyes - way way off the mark.

What IS a differentiator in coaching and game plan is the use of the player strengths one has at onee's disposal- and that boils down to a lot of things - mainly numbers.

Instead of ignoring blokes who have a clue like Cook - who wasnt brought in to improve marketing and membership numbers why not have a listen and think.

"the list is far from complete" - even the coach = who now apparently is a bad coach has stated the same thing.

A glance at the pout of contract list of players of 2023 might shed some light on where the list is truly at.

Maybe having a look at what Voss has to work with in:

Fisher/LoB/Motlop/Durdin/Owies/Silvagni as pretend forwards might help.....
Perhaps thinking about the lack of qulaty KPD or ruck might help
if that doesn't why not consider the cumulative and compounding effect of Cuningham/Martin/Marchbank/McGovern/Wiliams always injured

or how about consider the lack of true depth in young midfielders pushing for selection in: Carroll/Philp always injured or not right...

I get the easy lazy entitled sentiment on here regarding if not finals then coach must be sacked - it is all I have read on here since 2012 - when I joined.

What will make me give up on Carlton isnt the reality of seeing through a fix of the list's weak points- it will be yet another sacking of a coach.

If Voss gets sacked - I am out of the Carlton supporter Club - gone. Enough is enough with Carlton expectations - what an arrogance- as if the other teams in teh competition are nothing to be concerned about and if the side is not good enough it means the coach isnt. Very few Clubs with any success or credibility have sacked coaches every 2 years like Carlton ahs a penchant for doing - in fact NONE.

Suck it up we are what we are - we arent what we arent.

 

[macky99]

I think Voss will get the best out of us. He just needs time to make it happen.

There is very little evidence to support, Voss & his coaching team developed this safe boring game plan over summer which has been a major step backwards.

His only hope starting next week is to totally flip the game plan allow the players to play on instinct & with some flare and actually enjoy playing again.

Highly likely he will not be there next year.

 

[macky99]

He is 30 games into his Carlton coaching career.
Give him a break. He hasn't got a magic wand .
Can you imagine hawthorn getting rid of clarkson 30 games in ?
Show some patience people.

He inherited a reasonable list with two good key forwards, and we cannot score fundamentally our game plan is a joke & players are confused.

 

[BlueBlood15]

I get the anger and frustration. I think it is the lack of hope that is killing us all.

We all expected to be a decent football side this year, the reality is we are far from it.

I have spoken to mate at length on this and he is still adamant a large portion of our list just don't care enough. They are happy coming to work collecting their pay packets and that's enough.

I'm more on the side it's list than coach.

Cause I can't see anyone on our list that could change our sides fortunes. Dow was good and in my opinion he should play but like someone said he isn't Chris Judd so if he plays or not it won't change the outcome. I could say the same for at least a dozen more.

Rebuild, so let Voss do it. Think outside the box and get creative and maybe we can find a way we can spike in 2 - 3 years.

Assuming you’re correct that we’ve got a number of players who don’t care enough (which I’m inclined to believe is true), then why hasn’t our head of football Brad Lloyd dealt with this? He’s been there 5 years in the role and it’s his responsibility to deal with these types of issues.

Whatever way anyone wants to slice and dice the issues at Carlton (and no one is wrong because there are so many issues at the moment), a lot of it comes back to Brad Lloyd. He’s head of the football department. He’s responsible for the running of that department. The department and its personnel (players, coaches, list management, etc) are failing. The first step to fixing the issues at this club is removing the guy who is paid to identify and fix the issues but hasn’t been able to do so for 5 years.

 

[dumb]

i guess my answer might depend on soft cap rules, and i have a poor understanding of them. did we just finish paying teague out last year or we cop it the year he gets sacked? if voss is sacked this year do we finish paying out next year or all in one go this year? and what if any effect do those payments have on an incoming contract, or others, if you want to include hiring and firing of assistants?

next coach coming from outside will be under even more pressure than voss was. perception is that voss has a list to play finals. we could fire voss, bring in a new coach and unless they have permission to start again this coach would not even have one year if the current list was bouncing around mid-table before many supporters would start questioning their appointment. there is no patience at all, none.

the options seem to be:
stick fat with voss, hope he turns it around
hire caretaker, most likely hansen, get the sacked coach bounce and declare him the messiah because he wins a couple of games and plays the style we always wanted. voss was just holding him back anyway and never listened to his ideas, surely.
bring in new coach. this coach has to have permission to start again, because otherwise they aren't going to want to set foot inside the place with the axe hanging over their head, unless they're someone desperate for a gig. will the board let that happen when they likely share the perception of our list? they may even go weird and decide to let voss get the party started by giving him permission to gut the list, then still give him the ass next year.

all i know is i'm glad i'm not the one who has to sort it out

 

[blues4flag]

I don't think that's any of it. As a club, we have to figure out how to turn things around internally. Review, learn and improve. MAybe Voss isn't the long term guy, but we have to get better at turnign things around inside imo, not always be looking for the saviour from beyond.

Good point. Applies much more broadly than just footy. Need people with the clarity of vision internally to review and honestly and work out what the problems are, then put in a plan to fix them.

Fixing it might mean a host of different things. Do we have the right people but lack the processes for them to succeed? Do we need to supplement our people or replace them? That's all secondary to really understanding the issues and identifying what's most important today.

From the outside looking in, the issues are many and it might just be that the sum is far greater than the part. People can and have pointed the finger at:

• Goal kicking. Kick better and we probably win a bit more
• List management. Lacking dynamic players at half forward and around the ball to play modern, attacking football
• Skills and composure. Our inability to hit simple targets makes it very hard to play attacking footy
• Fitness. Were we too conservative over the off season and are suffering from a lack of fitness as a result?
• Inability to keep certain players on the field whether through poor recruiting or poor strength and conditioning
• Lack of experienced players with finals experience to turn to in a crisis. Success breeds success and the opposite is also true
• Confusing gameplan. We default to kicking long to a contest and refuse to give the handball receive to our runners
• Terrible connection between our midfield and our forwardine, terrible structure around the contest to get the ball to the outside
• Voss is a failed senior coach, extremely stubborn and refuses to implement a modern gameplan that suits the composition of our list
• Inexperienced/poor assistant coaches that aren't doing enough to support the senior coach
• Lack of selection integrity, not rewarding players like Dow and selecting the same slow midfield week in, week out
• Head of football who should have been fired at the last review. No qualified Director of Coaching since Neil Craig
• Lack of leadership and accountability at all areas of the football club
• A fractured board who passed up on the best available coach for reasons unrelated to footy
• Old school mentality. We're Carlton so we're entitled to success and if you don't bring that immediately than out the door with you. Coterie groups, powerbrokers, a vocal supporter base

...and I'm sure I missed a few.

That's 15 problems, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that each and every one of those has been highlighted as THE problem at one point or another. Hell, I've personally chopped and changed weekly as to which one is the problem.

Leadership is looking through the noise and identifying which issues to go after first. Understand which issues are fundamental and which are a distraction not worth directly addressing. They sure as hell aren't linear and fixing one issue directly might resolve another 5 indirectly.

It's why it's so frustrating as a supporter listening to outside takes every week, adamant that this is THE problem and if we don't fix it right now we're kidding ourselves. Reality is, inside the four walls they'd be debating the problems every week, and everyone would have a slightly different opinion.

This is where we need a strong leader like Cook to make an informed decision (not necessarily the best decision) with the facts at hand, set a course and stick to it (with whatever adjustments required as more information comes to hand).