Voss returns to Brisbane as Carlton coach, declares allegiance to Blues

Michael Voss grew up in Traralgon, Victoria, wearing Carlton colors. When he was eleven, his family moved to the Gold Coast. By fifteen, he was playing QAFL football for Morningside. At seventeen years and eleven days old, in 1992, he became the Brisbane Bears' youngest debutant—a club that would transform into the Lions within four years, and where Voss would spend the next fourteen seasons becoming the greatest player in franchise history.

On Saturday night, he will return to the Gabba as Carlton's coach, tasked with eliminating the Lions from the finals. The symmetry is almost too neat. When asked how the homecoming would feel after Carlton's two-point semi-final victory over Melbourne, Voss offered no sentiment. "I don't know," he said. "But without doubt, the person that's going there is a Carlton person." It was a statement of allegiance so deliberate it seemed designed to preempt the narrative that would otherwise write itself—that a man who captained Brisbane to three consecutive premierships from 2001 to 2003, who held the ceremonial keys to the city, who became a Brownlow medallist and five-time All-Australian, might harbor some lingering attachment to his old club.

Jason Akermanis, Voss's teammate through those championship years, understands the complexity better than most. "As he said in the press, he's the Carlton coach now," Akermanis reflected. "But he'll always be a Brisbane player." The two men, along with current Collingwood coach Craig McRae, formed the nucleus of Brisbane's inaugural Lions team in 1997, when the Bears merged with the Queensland expansion side. They transformed the franchise from a struggling outfit into a powerhouse. When Voss retired after the 2006 season, he had played 289 games and established himself as arguably the club's most decorated player.

But his coaching career has been a different story. In 2009, at thirty-three years old and with no AFL assistant coaching experience, Voss was appointed Brisbane's senior coach. He delivered immediately, taking the Lions to the finals in 2009 for the first time since 2004. They beat Carlton by seven points in an elimination final at the Gabba before losing to the Western Bulldogs the following week. After that, the Lions missed the finals for four consecutive seasons. Voss was sacked in August 2013, despite Brisbane still being in mathematical contention for the eight. Had they upset Geelong in the final round and Carlton lost to Port Adelaide, the Lions would have played finals—but both results went the other way by a single point.

Voss spent 2014 away from football entirely. He returned as Port Adelaide's midfield coach under Ken Hinkley from 2015 to 2021, a role that kept him in the game but denied him the senior position he sought. He interviewed for the Carlton job in 2019 and the Collingwood role in 2021, losing both times. McRae got Collingwood; David Teague got Carlton. When Teague was sacked in 2021, Voss applied again and finally succeeded. His first season ended in heartbreak—a last-gasp loss in Carlton's final home game cost them a finals spot. This year, after a wobbling start, Carlton executed a mid-season turnaround so dramatic it has rarely been seen in the competition. They finished fifth and have now won two sudden-death finals matches to reach the preliminary final.

Akermanis credits Voss's experience for the turnaround. "Where he was at earlier in the year and how he's turned it around, that's the difference with his experience," the former Lion said. Now, twelve years after McRae and Voss last coached against each other at Brisbane, both men have teams in the finals. McRae's Collingwood is also in a preliminary final. And Voss, the Carlton person who was born a Carlton supporter, will walk into the Gabba on Saturday night as the man tasked with denying Brisbane their first premiership since 2003—the year Voss himself led them to their third consecutive flag.