Voss: New-look Blues makes for more "contemporary" Carlton

“WE FEEL that makes us a bit more contemporary.”

A new-look playing group will bring a new-look style to the Blues in 2026, according to AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss.

With AFL rule alterations and a squad which has seen double-digit changes since the end of last season, the Blues have made no secret of their desire to be more dynamic in the upcoming campaign.

Speaking on SEN’s Fireball program, Voss said that while there’s been external commentary about who has moved on from the Blues since Round 24 last year, the internal noise has been about what the team can generate.

“It’s a dichotomy when it comes to people’s views of us… we’ve got this constant ‘wait and see’ about how we turn up. That’s okay, we’ll live in that,” Voss said.

“We’ll be happy to accept that we’ve got a fair bit of work to do, but in behind that is a great belief and energy in what we’ve been able to do over the course of pre-season and the pieces we’ve added.

“We’re a strong contested team, but we need to improve in transition… we feel that makes us a bit more contemporary with the way we line up, we feel like we bat a bit deeper within certain roles.”

Voss looked to not only the “pieces” the Blues have added from other clubs, but also those who missed a large amount of football last year, as some who would help the Blues’ offensive profile.

Ben Ainsworth, Will Hayward and Ollie Florent have been added, but by the same token, the Blues will also look to add in the likes of Nic Newman and Matthew Cottrell when the time is right.

“You can fight that as a coach: there’s a style of play you want to play, but do we have the personnel to be able to execute that? At stages in the year, we lost some key personnel to help us with that.

“What we have done is added to that area. There’s been a real shift towards that, there’s been no doubt during this pre-season.

“If you’re asking how do we measure our season, I like to think you see elements of improvement - particularly in that part of our game - which makes us more dynamic as a football team.”

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