Cornes: Good on Voss, Carlton put him in a shocking position

SEN's Kane Cornes has congratulated Michael Voss on his decision to stand down as coach of the Carlton Football Club after a tenure overshadowed by drama, speculation and relentless pressure.

News of 50-year-old's departure broke on Tuesday morning with the club 1-8 this season and enduring just as many issues off the field as on.

Voss was at the helm for 103 matches between 2022 and 2026 with a winning record of 47.5%.

"Voss standing down as coach. What are my thoughts? Good on him," Cornes said. "What a shocking position the club put him in if the reports are to be believed that the club approached Craig McRae to sound out his interests to coach Carlton at the end of last year.

"Once you're out on the coach you're out on the coach. You trade some good players away and invest in the future. Voss was in an impossible situation to have a good year this year with the pieces he was given by the club.

"He has been let down and I do not blame him for one second for having enough, hopefully he can have sometime off and gather his thoughts for what’s next.

"Another chapter in the pretty unsuccessful story of the Carlton Football Club."

Garry Lyon believes Voss would have lost no admirers with the way he has handled himself.

"My immediate reaction is I'm not surprised," Lyon said on SEN Breakfast.

"But I want to congratulate Michael Voss for the way he has conducted himself throughout the course of this year. History may judge him as ultimately being unsuccessful from a coaching point of view. Now that's harsh, but he coached Brisbane to a final, he coached the Carlton Footy Club to a prelim final.

"But what he has done under enormous pressure and scrutiny and been the lead story for most of the Mondays throughout the course of this year with the manner they've played and, you know, media camping out at Carlton, all those things. The way he's conducted himself and handled himself, he never backs away, he fronts up to every request pre-game.

"He speaks positively, post-game he goes to the press conference and tries to explain the unexplainable. I think he's done it in such a manner that he loses absolutely no fans. And in the end, coaching might not be the profession that he wanted it to be, but I don't think he's lost one fan whatsoever in the process."

Tim Watson spoke of the pressure Voss faced week in, week out as senior coach of the Carlton Football Club.

"I think there were some moments there in recent times where there was probably an inkling as to how he was thinking and where he was going because," said Watson.

"His narrative around his team shifted. It was that he was doing everything in his power to protect the players from any criticism that might come their way from him. But then it started to shift.

"Ever so subtly around... this is what I've been asking the players to do. They haven't been delivering on that. So I think there has been a subtle shift over that period of time.

"I'm surprised that he lasted this long under that sort of pressure because it wasn't just this year. You think about last year and the pressure that he's been on there at Carlton over a long, long period of time, and everyone questioning, a lot of Carlton fans questioning him being the coach, and then even the conversations around whether or not he was going to continue on this year at the end of last year.

"And then we had the story about the fact that Graham Wright had actually approached Craig McRae, which they deny, but then others believed that that was categorically 100 per cent true."

Blues legend Anthony Koutoufides spoke of Voss' tenure on SEN Breakfast.

"I'm shocked given it’s only round 10," he said. "It's been a tough year. Only one win in nine rounds. They were terrific against Brisbane and maybe there was hope there, but they couldn’t get it over the line. Doing Blues radio we saw it in the box the last time we saw him coach, there was a lot going on.

"Vossy – he has been terrific at the club and what a wonderful man. I adore him as a lot of people do. He got to the prelim final and had the toughest task to beat Brisbane up there. He did a great job Vossy, a really good job.

"I feel like we had the talent there. At the end of last season we lost three key players for us. So this year is a different line up but I think in those few years we had the players they just couldn’t get it over the line. A few years ago maybe 2024 they looked like they might go on to win.

"It fell away so quickly. As fast as it came is disappeared so fast. They had the list but as you know it takes so much more than good players."