Whateley: Set up to fail - Voss never had a chance of surviving 2026

There has rarely been a clearer case of a coach set up to fail like Michael Voss this year at Carlton.

A team deliberately taking steps backwards for the long-term, but with a coach in the final year of his contract fitted up for judgement. It couldn't work.

It was near identical to the Giants' handling of Leon Cameron in 2022.

Cameron coached his last game in Round 9. Voss coached his last game in Round 9.

The lesson here is eternal. A club can't be half-hearted on its coach.

You either believe in him, or you don't.

Crossing your fingers and closing your eyes, wishing and hoping and thinking and praying, never works.

As soon as you waver, it's over. Carlton did plenty of wavering, and Voss never had a chance.

Carlton has ridden the doom loop from the opening moments of its season. Worse, it has actively spun the doom loop.

It was foolish making statements about the top 10 once they'd seen the reality of the team.

It set expectations that could never be met. It smacked of a club that couldn't level with its fan base.

While Voss held his dignity and refused to engage in the three-day updates on his job, there seemed always a willing administrator to do just that.

Until ultimately the only question that matters, am I in your future plans? Once the answer was no, it was time to put an end to the misery.

Carlton's litany of sacked coaches grows. Brett Ratten, Mick Malthouse, Brendan Bolton, David Teague, and now Michael Voss. Three of the five in the first half of seasons.

None of it has unlocked the path to what modern success looks like.

It's more likely that it's created the leaden weight of consequence that sits so heavily over the Blues and the footy equivalent of PTSD that grips the senior players who have lived through the familiar path to dismissal.

There are Blues supporters who have no other ideas than to sack the coach.

You have another head on a stick today, congratulations. Are you happy? Is the club better off? What happens now?

As the epitaphs are written on Michael Voss's five seasons with the Blues, let it be remembered he took the team to its first Preliminary Final since the David Parkin era.

It was a glorious and unlikely late season run that reminded us of what Carlton once was and aspired to be and is not anymore.

The stands at the MCG shook at the climax of that semi-final. It felt like deliverance. In hindsight, it was a miracle.

The slide since has been dispiriting and clearly exhausting. Voss's Carlton has the fatal flaw of not being able to halt momentum.

Whether that be tactical, attitudinal, or spiritual.

Jacob Weitering said it with us last week. ‘It's happening again’.

This morning, it's all happened again.

The coach is gone at Carlton, in a tale as old as time.