Blues players expected their coach to tear strips off them. What followed stunned them |
Blues players expected their coach to tear strips off them. What followed stunned them
May 12, 2026 — 3:30pm
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The night Carlton chose Michael Voss over Charlie Curnow may ultimately be remembered as the moment the club sealed both men’s futures.
One stayed. One walked.
And by the time the Carlton board finally emerged from Ikon Park deep into the night on August 6, 2025, the club had unknowingly accelerated the end of the Voss era.
For weeks, Carlton had been consumed by uncertainty. The season was deteriorating, the pressure around Voss had become relentless and rumours were spreading through the competition that Curnow — the club’s biggest star and a dual Coleman medallist — was miserable.
Not just frustrated. Miserable.
Those close to Curnow say the champion forward had fallen out of love with football amid the turbulence of Carlton’s season. Injuries had worn him down physically, but internally, there was a growing belief the emotional disconnect ran deeper than form or fitness.
The relationship between player and club had become strained.
The relationship between player and coach had become complicated.
And yet, despite all of it, many across the football industry still believed Curnow would stay at Carlton if the club made the difficult decision to part ways with Voss.
That was the prevailing view among rival clubs monitoring the situation. It was the belief held by figures close to Curnow. And within sections of Carlton, there was an assumption that removing Voss would effectively reset the club’s emotional temperature.
Instead, Carlton doubled down.
Chief executive Graham Wright – brought to Ikon Park to stabilise the football department and make hard-headed decisions – recommended to the board that Voss remain senior coach into 2026.
The board unanimously backed him.
What followed was one of the most extraordinary public statements of Carlton’s modern era.
“We want to make it absolutely clear that Michael Voss is the coach of the Carlton Football Club, and he will remain the coach of the Carlton Football Club,” president Rob Priestley declared.
There was an unmistakable tone of defiance running through the release, as though Carlton wasn’t merely backing its coach but fighting a war against the noise surrounding him. The statement referenced “calm, rational and fully informed decisions”, praised Voss’ leadership “in the face of incredible pressure” and repeatedly emphasised alignment between Wright and the coach.
To some, internally, it sounded less like confidence and more like justification.
Inside the demise of Voss, and the weakness that sealed his fate
Jake NiallChief football writer, The Age
Chief football writer, The Age
The line that resonated most........