Michael Voss and the new tattoo blues
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 of the season. 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.
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. “Is that a serious question?” he asked. “People don’t understand this – because you played for another club is irrelevant. We came here to win.”
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.
That’s all water under the bridge. “I think it’s a lot of what other people talk about,” he said at the Gabba on Friday.
Michael Voss and the new tattoo blues Read More »