What they said: “Bring your best” Voss’ message to Blues

Here’s what Michael Voss had to say prior to Round 19.

Ready to play in front of a home Carlton crowd for the first time in a month, AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss wants to see the Blues get back to their best against North Melbourne this Sunday.

Addressing some of the key focus areas for the Blues this weekend, here’s what he had to say.

On the upcoming clash with North Melbourne:

“We’re really looking forward to it. It’s another chance to get in front of our home fans, which is always a real positive: hopefully we get another 50,000 people there. I’m sure it’ll be a good game. 

“We’ve been nothing but impressed with the Roos’ current form line. They’ve put a good body of work together. Looking through their past games over the last five or six weeks, they look a lot more stable and consistent in terms of the players that have been playing and their performances.

“We’re looking to bring our absolute best to this particular contest.”

On Jesse Motlop and George Hewett’s confirmed inclusions:

“Jesse Motlop has been able to go back and has now got four or five weeks of football under him. We feel like he’s been steadily building his form over the last month. He’s certainly earned the right to get back into this team.

“The other big one for us was George Hewett and his form. He’s been in great form throughout periods of this year, he went back and played very, very well in the VFL last week. We know he comes back into the team to strengthen up that midfield area for us.

“We like to always balance out and give reward to players that are playing good footy in the VFL, but we’ve got to balance that with the player that’s in there at that particular time and the role that’s available.”

On Mitch McGovern’s availability:

“He hasn’t progressed as fast as we would’ve liked. We had the 1-2 week marker there. We would’ve liked him to do a bit more earlier in the week, so we’ll take the few extra days.

“We’ve got a pretty tight turnaround into the next one, we think he’ll be available for next week.”

On reports about Sam Docherty’s recovery timeline:

“I reckon we’ve jumped the gun a little bit too early there. I appreciate there’s an interest because of the person he is and some of the things he’s been through.

“He’s stepping through pretty well, you see him out there on the grass running around. It’s great to see, but we’re probably firing a few shots too early there.”

On what lessons earlier returns from Dan McStay and Jake Melksham have provided:

“There’s lessons to be learned in any rehabilitation, I think that’s common practice to look where those challenge points are.

“We’ve also got to look at the individual. We’ve got our own view of where that sits, so if we need to take our time we’ll take our time.

On improvement areas:

“Most people have been talking about our defence, and we’d agree. It hasn’t been up to scratch with where we’d like it over the last two weeks.

“The month before that we were great in that area, but the reality is the last two weeks have been disappointing. There’s some really simple things within it, it’s not like there’s a lot of big things.

“We feel a lot of our own game is going okay, but we’ve got a couple of things we’ve got to chase and continue to refine. We’ve lowered our guard, and teams have been able to score a bit too easily.”

On Brodie Kemp’s omission:

“We need to see more consistency. The opportunity which we underestimate sometimes is to go back and work on your craft and build your confidence.

“He’s had a number of games in a row with that back seven, where there’s been good cohesion and connection with the group. We feel like we’ve got some guys there that have been waiting in the wings for an opportunity, he’ll go back and work on his game.

“We still see him playing a really strong role for us going forward, but he’s got to chase a couple of things and hopefully gets back into the team pretty quickly.”