It’s simple and, frankly, obvious — but it’s a sentence that will still break Brisbane Lion hearts.
Michael Voss is a “Carlton person”.
Shades of the original Lion King are now tinted Blue and the former Brisbane skipper will do anything to deny his old club of a first premiership since he himself led them to a historic third-successive flag 20 years ago.
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The Brisbane Hall of Famer will return to the Gabba on Saturday night as coach of Carlton, where he plans to shatter the hopes of the Lions fans he once captivated in a poetic preliminary final.
Asked how that will feel after his side’s thrilling two-point semi-final win over Melbourne on Friday night, Voss was unsure of that just yet — but certain of where his allegiances lie.
“I don’t know (how it will feel). It should be exciting though,” Voss said on Friday night, ahead of his Brisbane homecoming.
“But without doubt, the person that’s going there is a Carlton person.”
As Brisbane captain, Voss literally had the keys to the city.
But long-time teammate Jason Akermanis believes Voss will always have a Lion’s heart.
“As he said in the press, he’s the Carlton coach now,” Akermanis says.
“But he’ll always be a Brisbane player.”
Voss was born in Traralgon, Victoria. He grew up a Carlton supporter.
When he was 11, the Voss family moved to Beenleigh on the Gold Coast.
The red-headed midfielder quickly drew the attention of AFL pathway recruiters and, aged 15, he made his QAFL debut for Morningside.
Aged 17 years and 11 days, Voss in 1992 became the Brisbane Bears’ youngest debutant — against Fitzroy, the club destined to merge with the Queensland expansion side at the end of 1996.
The Bears became Lions — Voss, Akermanis and current Collingwood coach Craig McRae among those in the inaugural team who would form the nucleus of Brisbane’s first premiership team.
They help to put the Lions on the Brisbane map, winning three consecutive premierships from 2001 and given the ceremonial keys to the city.
“I grew up here,” Akermanis said of Brisbane.
“When I started playing we had 12,500 members. And at the end of 2003, ‘04, it was around 33,000, so it definitely changed.
“By the end we were very recognisable, very famous in the city. It was really cool. I probably stood out, I had the rock star (image) but Vossy was quite recognisable.
“We had a bigger reach because by then, we were playing the finals, we were all on TV, all on radio, all in the papers. No one didn’t know who we were by then.”
Voss became arguably the Lions’ greatest player, feted as Brisbane’s triple premiership captain, Brownlow medallist and five-time All-Australian.
He ended his decorated 289-game playing career at the conclusion of the 2006 season — the same year Akermanis moved to the Western Bulldogs and two years after McRae retired.
“They’re all competitive beasts and want to whoop each other,” Akermanis said of the current-day head coaches.
“It was a very competitive playing group. That is why we were so successful.
“Craig McRae worked at Brisbane when Vossy was coaching as well. It’s crazy that 12 years on, they’re still in footy and both their teams are in prelims.”
In 2009, Voss, aged 33, was thrust straight into the role as Brisbane senior coach, despite having spent no time as an assistant coach at any AFL club.
He immediately took the Lions to the promised land, lifting into them into the finals for the first time since 2004, where they beat Carlton by seven points in an elimination final thriller at the Gabba before succumbing to the Western Bulldogs in a semi-final the next week.
After losing the semi-final by 51 points, the Lions missed the finals in the next four years under Voss, who was sacked by the club in August of the 2013 season, despite Brisbane being still in the mix to sneak into the eight.
In fact, had the Lions upset Geelong in the final round of the season (they went down by one point), and Carlton lost to Port Adelaide (they won by one point), they would have played finals.
“He was probably was a bit green,” Akermanis said of Voss’ first stint as an AFL head coach.
Voss took a year away from footy in 2014 before returning to the fold with Port Adelaide, where he took charge of the Power’s midfield under Ken Hinkley between 2015-2021.
With hope for a senior recall still flickering, he interviewed for the jobs at Carlton in 2019 and Collingwood in 2021, but did so unsuccessfully.
Former Lions teammate McRae pipped him for the Magpies job in 2021, and David Teague was the preferred candidate for the Blues in 2019.
But when Teague was sacked in 2021, Voss threw his hat in the ring once more, and was given the keys to Princes Park.
Carlton’s first season under Voss ended in agony, with a last-gasp loss in their closing home and away game costing them a finals berth.
This year, Carlton wobbled early before recovering in sensational fashion to take fifth spot with an in-season turnaround the likes of which we have seldom ever seen.
“Where he was at earlier in the year and how he’s turned it around, that’s the difference with his experience,” Akermanis said.
Two sudden-death final wins later and Voss’s wheel is about to turn a full circle.
– With AAP.
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