Essendon great Matthew Lloyd has questioned whether Michael Voss has the tactical nous to help Carlton rise up the ladder following a disappointing month of form.
The Blues showed rapid improvement under Voss in his debut season last year before falling away in the final month to miss out on a top eight spot on the final day of the home and away season.
After going undefeated in the first four rounds of 2023, Carlton has been beaten in four of its last five outings, with many experts criticising the team’s slow ball movement going forward.
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While there have been murmurs of Voss being on the hot seat, Carlton football boss Brad Lloyd, the brother of Matthew, told Nine’s Footy Classified that the Blues coach retained the backing of the club.
“I think Vossy is one of the best things to happen at the Carlton footy club in a long time,” he said.
“He’s an outstanding leader, an outstanding person, sensational with the players. We saw what he did last year in getting the group going.
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“We’ve got absolute belief in him and our coaching group.
“I think we need stability. We need to stay united, stay connected, stay stable as a footy club.
“The worst thing that could happen is the club divides, which isn’t going to happen with the people we’ve got at the footy club.”
However, despite his brother’s vote of confidence, the Essendon champion questioned whether Carlton needed to bolster its coaching department.
“The strategy of Michael Voss is in question in my opinion,” he told Footy Classified.
“(Collingwood assistant) Justin Leppitsch they say probably won’t be another senior coach ever again because he may have some flaws in other areas, but he sees the game better than anybody else.
“Michael is great in areas, maybe it’s another area he needs to be supported by others.
“I think strategy (is where Voss is deficient). To me, I haven’t seen anything over the past (few years).
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“They fell apart (last year), they were going to play finals and lost four in a row, games that were there to be won. This year, they haven’t beaten a scalp in a fair while.
“The strategy, the jury is out on Michael Voss. They may say that he’s great in areas, but at the end of the day it’s about winning games of football and is it that they need to surround him with others if he’s weak in areas.”
While plenty have pointed the finger at Voss, Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes suggested that Carlton’s struggles boiled down to their most highly-paid players not pulling their weight.
“This is the playing list that Carlton have, there’s no get-outs. They can’t fix it. They are all in on this group,” he told Footy Classified.
“You can call it a long-term contract curse, you can call it whatever you like, but they’re not getting value for money out of those players.
“(Patrick) Cripps won a Brownlow, so you’d give him a tick, (Charlie) Curnow you’d give a tick, and (Sam) Walsh always gives effort, apart from that, are those players living up to those deals?
“It was always a risk going all in with this group that hadn’t yet really achieved anything in terms of September success.”
Having tumbled out of the top eight after losing to the Bulldogs at the weekend, Voss and Carlton’s task gets no easier this week when they face the AFL’s ladder-leaders, Collingwood.
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