What they said: Voss previews final game, off-season to come

On how the team pulled up from the weekend’s game:

“Cooper Lord has gone into concussion protocols so he’ll be unavailable, and ‘Fog’ has come out with a swollen ankle. Cooper won’t be available and ‘Fog’ will be in doubt for the game.

“We took some precautionary measures just in case, given we only had a four-day turnaround from the VFL to this particular game - we decided to not play some players if that happened. Those players will come into calculations.”

On the importance of finishing the season strong:

“It’s pretty important - you can sometimes ask why it’s relevant, but we’ve been steadily working at a few things and we’re using this time to stay a little bit curious and stay open to different things.

“In the last month, we’ve had steady progress which has been really good to see. There are little bits of things, whether it’s a role that’s being executed a little bit better, whether it’s the style of play we want to play, the finish we want to have or even just younger players emerging. We’ve been able to get a few things like that in the last month going really well, and we’ve been able to get some confidence amongst each other.

“Some of those changes we’ve made have been obvious if it’s been about positions or exposure for our younger players and riding their highs and lows, understanding it’s not going to be perfect. When you go out there and perform, you get confidence in one another and that trust builds. We have sight on what it looks like, because we have to build out the depth of our list. Some of that has come through our younger experience, and we’ll continue to prioritise that.”

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On Elijah Hollands’ chances for selection:

“If you’re fit and healthy, you’re in the frame. But we’ve prioritised the guys that didn’t play on the weekend [in the VFL] - the guys who played in the VFL would end up turning in on a four-day break, we have to give that some consideration and give ourselves the best chance to perform. We’ve come out reasonably healthy bar a couple of individuals, so we’ll come in pretty much the same with one or two adjustments.”

On the Club’s areas to address this off-season:

“We need some depth, that’s been a priority for us. It’s going back a long way: we thought the durability of the list wasn’t where it needed to be last year, we had too many soft-tissue injuries and went to work on that as a list.

“Unfortunately we’ve had a lot of different trauma injuries this year, but it has felt like we’ve controlled what we need to control and we think our high performance and medical team has done an amazing job managing our year and the program they’ve put around our players. We’ve been a little bit unlucky, and we need to ride that bit out and be really strong on the things that have worked for us within the program and keep doubling down on the things that make our program stronger.

“Ideally we want to bring in some speed and ball use. That’ll be nice on the edges to bring that. It’s nice that we’ve got some guys that haven’t played a lot of football this year that we can bring into the team immediately, which will be a difference for us in that area. Cottrell, Smith, Walsh has come back and you see the impact he has. We haven’t had these players for a lot of the year.

“But we’re looking to finish off the year and facing a team that has had a similar journey when it comes to injuries and doesn’t have their best team out there. When you’re talking about a rivalry, it always exists - no matter what time of the season it is and what you’re playing for. We want to make sure we’re finishing the season in the right way.

On if this week’s game will be Tom De Koning’s last in Navy Blue:

“I’m certainly hoping not. What we will do is celebrate his 100th. What Tom has been able to do over the course of this year - regardless of what happens next - is he’s brought an enormous amount of energy, he’s a well-loved player and teammate and friend.

“We’re hoping he’s with us next year, but what we will do is celebrate his 100th and the journey he’s had with us. He’ll make his decision next and I don’t know what that is, we’ll find out in due course. We’ll get around him this weekend and celebrate that milestone as we do with every other person, and hopefully he’s walking off with a victory.”

On any potential changes to the football department:

“The critical decision around our GM was the decision that needed to be made, if it had to take place. The rest of the football department has taken a position that we get to the end of the season: we’ve got a couple of days to go and had a really short turnaround from one game to the next, so it’s really hard to lift our eyes and think about possible changes. We get to the end of the season, we’ll take a breath and we’ll make necessary changes from there if we need to.

“I love our group and can’t question our people and what they’ve been able to do over the course of this year, staying really aligned with what we want to continue to reinforce and we’ve seen some of that positivity come out in the back end of the year. Without that alignment, energy and people being here for the right reasons, you don’t get to shift that energy. I think you’re seeing that now among the playing group, wanting to play for one another - that’s not a fluke, that’s everyone sticking on the same path.”

On discussion around length of player contracts, and comparisons to his first in football:

“Shane O’Sullivan - who’s here now - negotiated my first contract, and it was $500 for a loss and $1,500 for a win. I didn’t earn a lot of money back in those days! I was still in school, so at least I got to buy a Cherry Ripe and a Big M at lunchtime - and that was about as good as it got. Needless to say, the situation has changed a lot.

“I never really had long contracts, I loved where I was. My dad gave me this great advice, ‘look after your football and you never have to worry about what you get paid. Love where you are, and you never have to worry about what you get paid.’. I reckon that’s been great advice, and any advice I give any player it’s always that.”

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