Best list in a decade? Why Carlton legend believes there will be some early pressure on Michael Voss

Carlton legend Robert Walls has outlined what he believes is a pass mark for his former club in 2022 and given his thoughts the appointment of new head coach Michael Voss.

Voss replaces David Teague in the role, with the club hoping to hit the ground running and play finals.

On a personal level, Walls is happy the Brisbane champion got another coaching opportunity.

“Absolutely (I’m thrilled to see Voss get another chance) and what I like is that he’s fair dinkum,” Walls told Sportsday.

“He was thrown into the Brisbane senior coaching job far too early, and I can understand why they made that decision, but he was just out of the game, he was very young, he’d never coached.

“What I liked was that when he lost the job at Brisbane, he was prepared to do an apprenticeship and a lengthy apprenticeship.

“He moved his family from the comfort of Brisbane to Adelaide and he spent seven years there under Ken Hinkley which I think would be a terrific learning experience.

“He’s now ready to go. I’m so glad that he was given that opportunity.”

Walls however feels Voss will be under more pressure than respective new head coaches Sam Mitchell (Hawthorn) and Craig McRae (Collingwood), given the Blues are further along in their list development.

“I reckon there probably is (more pressure on Voss than other new coaches) because they’ve been thereabouts and promised a lot and delivered very little over the last four or five years,” he said.

“I’ve had a pretty good look at them, they lost a lot of games by not big margins, so they’re fairly close to it.

“I just think their list now is the best that it has been in a decade and the expectations I think with the supporters will be pretty high.

“I would not be surprised if they made the finals. I think they need to win more games than they lose to get a tick at the end of the season, and I think they’re more than capable of doing that.”

Carlton has not played finals since 2013, emphasising Walls’ belief that the current list is the best it has been in a decade.

The Blues were active in the trade period, adding Adam Cerra from Fremantle, George Hewett from Sydney and Lewis Young from the Western Bulldogs. The unexpected retirement of Liam Jones looms as the big positional question mark.