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Michael Voss was in a deep hole. It was 2011 and the Brisbane Lions, the team he had captained to three premierships, had lost the first seven games. He was coaching the club, and pressure was mounting ahead of a game against fellow strugglers, North Melbourne, then coached by former teammate Brad Scott.<\/p>\n
The Lions prevailed by 14 points. After the match, Scott was asked if there was any consolation in his old club breaking the drought. Scott, as notoriously ruthless a competitor as Voss, scoffed and shook his head in disgust. \u201cIs that a serious question?\u201d he asked. \u201cPeople don\u2019t understand this \u2013 because you played for another club is irrelevant. We came here to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Michael Voss is a Brisbane Lions legend, and returns to the Gabba in charge of the team attempting to end their grand final hopes.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n Twelve years later, Voss will return to the Gabba for a preliminary final, now as the coach of Carlton. He, too, will be playing to win against the club that appointed him coach (without interviewing any other candidates) in September 2008, then sacked him in early August 2013 in a fruitless pursuit of former Swans coach Paul Roos.<\/p>\n That\u2019s all water under the bridge. \u201cI think it\u2019s a lot of what other people talk about it,\u201d he said at the Gabba on Friday. \u201cI haven\u2019t spoken about it at all; I haven\u2019t shared my story with the players at all because we\u2019re busy forging our own and what version we want to be for the Carlton Football Club. We\u2019ve got such a great story to tell, and we get to lean into that.\u201d<\/p>\n Whatever Voss\u2019 feelings \u2013 private or public \u2013 Brisbane Lions fans are likely to experience more mixed emotions. \u201cOur supporters will be 100 per cent barracking for the Lions, but I think if it came to pass that Carlton got over the top of us, none of them would begrudge seeing Vossy get to a grand final and do well,\u201d club chair Andrew Wellington said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n On his left ankle, Voss sports a tattoo commemorating his three premierships with the Lions. Asked if he\u2019d ink a new Blues tattoo should his team go all the way, he grinned. \u201cCan\u2019t confirm. But it wouldn\u2019t feel right if I didn\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how we go.\u201d<\/p>\n Voss\u2019 combination of skill, hardness and leadership means he remains a revered figure at the Lions, despite the brutal nature of his exit a decade ago. It wasn\u2019t just the three premierships, either. Voss\u2019 career began with the \u201cBad News\u201d Bears in 1992, when they were still based on the Gold Coast. He transformed them from a punchline into a powerhouse.<\/p>\n Wellington also said the nature of the AFL market in Queensland \u2013 and the history of the Lions themselves \u2013 meant that crowds were less tribal in their loyalties. \u201cNotwithstanding our Fitzroy history, a lot of our supporters have come on board either through the Bears or in more recent times,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of the early Bears were players who came from other clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n James Kliemt, who led the club supporter group The Lions\u2019 Roar through some difficult years either side of Voss\u2019 sacking, confessed to difficulties in reconciling past and present. \u201cIt is strange,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve thought about this, and I just think clubs are so corporate now that they\u2019ve lost that feeling from years gone by when the rivalries were so much more visceral.\u201d<\/p>\n Four members of the legendary triple premiership Lions dynasty from 2001-03 are now senior coaches. Apart from Voss, there\u2019s Collingwood\u2019s Craig McRae, Chris Scott (Geelong) and his brother Brad (now with Essendon). \u201cThey can\u2019t all coach the Lions, so you can\u2019t begrudge them pursuing their career,\u201d Wellington said.<\/p>\n Michael Voss celebrates the Lions\u2019 premiership in 2001.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Pat Scala<\/cite><\/p>\n Unstated in all this is a sympathy and affection for Voss that perhaps would not be extended to the Scotts, at least not to the same degree: the Lions, after all, sacked their favourite son, and the club unravelled. Earlier this year, Kliemt confessed to wincing as Voss, once again, skated close to the coaching abyss after the Blues had lost eight out of nine games.<\/p>\n \u201cI actually went back and watched the media conferences that Vossy did after those games, and saw how defeated and down he was,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could see what a tough spot he was in. And then they won [against Gold Coast in round 14], and he was like, wow, what happened there? It was lovely seeing the growth in him and the team after that.\u201d<\/p>\n The rollercoaster Voss was riding brought back memories of his sacking in 2013. \u201cIt was devastating for him, and the club was not in good shape off-field at that point,\u201d Kliemt said. \u201cHe was on a hiding to nothing; he was a young coach. He\u2019s much more articulate now than he was then, and he has a much more nuanced perspective on the on-field versus off-field stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Failure, he said, had humbled Voss. \u201cIt was funny that the lesser lights of that Brisbane team seemed to take to coaching more naturally. [Voss] approached it like the bull-at-a-gate player that he was, and his experiences have clearly taught him that maybe a time of getting sat back on your bum is what you need to be that more well-rounded character at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n In late 2021, the Lions named the playing field of their new home base at Springfield, in Brisbane\u2019s south-west, Michael Voss Oval. Voss was honoured by the acknowledgement, but he declined an invitation to this year\u2019s 20th anniversary celebrations of the 2003 premiership on 30 August: \u201cHe just felt it wasn\u2019t the right look.\u201d<\/p>\n McRae, however, did attend, despite Collingwood being frontrunners for this year\u2019s flag. McRae, who played 195 games with Brisbane, was being inducted into the club\u2019s Hall of Fame. \u201cHe very kindly said if they [Collingwood] can\u2019t win he hoped we do \u2013 playing to the crowd a bit, I suspect,\u201d Wellington said.<\/p>\n Kliemt reiterated what\u2019s been a common theme of seasons 2022 and 2023: even the Magpies are no longer the hated foes of yore.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t dislike \u2018Fly\u2019 [McRae]; you can\u2019t dislike what he\u2019s done with [Collingwood], and it\u2019s the same with Vossy,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it will be interesting! You\u2019re enormously supportive until they\u2019re playing your team.\u201d<\/p>\n Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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