Longmire, Voss and the Carlton Circus Rolls On

John Longmire tells the press he has ‘a few things to consider’, Michael Voss fronts the cameras to defend his position and his faith in Jacob van Rooyen — sorry, I mean Marc Murphy — no, wait, it’s Lachie Fraser we’re talking about this week, and meanwhile the rest of the VFL, sorry, the AFL, gets on with its football season while Carlton apparently gets on with its annual soap opera.

I’ve been watching this club stumble, stumble and occasionally trot since Jesaulenko was taking intercept marks, and I want to say something plainly before I work myself into a proper lather: I actually think Michael Voss is trying. I think he genuinely cares about the Navy Blue. But caring about something and being the right man to fix it are two different things, and the fact that a bloke like Longmire is out there publicly not-quite-ruling-himself-out is a red flag the size of the banner they couldn’t run through in 2023.

What Longmire Actually Said — And What He Didn’t

Let’s be precise here, because the footy media has a habit of building a bonfire out of a lit match. Longmire did not say he wants the Carlton job. He did not nominate himself. What he did was use the particular kind of crafted ambiguity that senior coaches deploy when they want to keep options open without burning a bridge. ‘A few things to consider’ is coachspeak for ‘don’t count me out.’ Any bloke who’s sat through a Board meeting knows exactly what that sounds like.

Back in my day, when coaches were done they went and ran a pie shop or something. They didn’t linger in the media atmosphere like a bad smell before Grand Final week. The fact that Longmire — a quality operator, no question, four premierships worth of quality — is floating around in the public conversation while Carlton still has an employed senior coach tells you something about the confidence levels around Ikon Park right now.

Voss Steps Up, For What It’s Worth

Credit where it’s due: Michael Voss did not hide. He fronted up, spoke clearly, defended his record and specifically addressed the Lachie Fraser situation, which had been gathering steam as one of those slow-burn controversies that Carlton seems to manufacture with frightening regularity.

Voss talked about Fraser with genuine conviction. He backed his faith in the young fella, acknowledged the development curve and made the case that this is a list being built, not a finished product. Fine. All of that might even be true. But here’s my problem — and it’s not with Michael Voss the man, it’s with the situation the club keeps putting itself in — we have been hearing variations of the same speech from Carlton senior coaches for the better part of twenty years. ‘We’re building.’ ‘The list is maturing.’ ‘The kids are coming.’ Back in my day, you built for two seasons and then you either played finals or you got the sack. Now we build for a decade and call it progress.

The Fraser Question Is Actually Interesting

Now, I want to park the coaching merry-go-round for a moment and actually talk about Lachie Fraser, because amid all the noise around Longmire and Voss, this particular thread is worth pulling.

Fraser is a big-bodied forward who can mark, can crumb and has shown flashes of the kind of contested work that Carlton desperately needs inside 50. What he hasn’t shown consistently is the pressure acts, the repeat efforts, the ferocity at the contest that makes a forward line tick over in the third and fourth quarters. That’s not a character flaw — that’s development. That’s what 21-year-olds do.

The question worth asking is whether the enviroment around the club right now — the coaching speculation, the fixture difficulties, the noise — is the right environment for a young forward to find his feet. I’d argue it isn’t, and I’d further argue that Carlton’s habit of making everything a public drama does the younger players no favours whatsoever. Voss backing Fraser publicly is the right move. Whether it’s enough is another matter.

The Board Has to Look Itself in the Mirror

Here is where I will have my annual spray at the suits, and I make no apology for it.

Every time Carlton goes through a coaching cycle — and Lord knows we’ve been through enough of them — the discussion focuses almost entirely on the coach and the players. Rarely, if ever, do we have an honest national conversation about the Carlton Football Club Board and its decision-making culture. Back in my day, the committee men were accountable too. They had to face the members at AGMs that actually meant something. Now it feels like the president issues a statement, the CEO does a press conference and everyone moves along.

The Longmire speculation — however it was seeded, by his management, by journalists, by club insiders with an agenda — should prompt serious questions about what Carlton’s leadership is privately signalling to the football world. If Voss has the full confidence of the Board, then why is Longmire’s name even a story? You only vacuum up coaches when there’s a vacancy, or when you’re quietly looking for one.

Longmire Would Be a Quality Appointment — That’s Not the Point

I’m going to be fair here, because fairness is important even when you’re grumpy. If Carlton decided tomorrow that Michael Voss was not the man and they went after John Longmire, I would not be writing a column saying it was the wrong football decision. Longmire is a proven winner. He gets the big moments, he handles pressure beautifully, he can recruit and he can develop. He is, on paper, exactly the kind of experienced head that Carlton has been desperately short of since the days when Mick Malthouse was stalking the boundary.

But that’s not the point. The point is the process, the culture, the constant hum of instability that follows this club around like a bad kick-in. Good coaches build cultures over time. Good cultures require stability. Stability requires that the Board stops leaking, stops speculating and stops making the football club feel like it’s in perpetual audition mode. The players pick up on that. I promise you they do.

What Carlton Supporters Actually Need Right Now

I’ll tell you what I need, and I reckon I speak for a fair portion of the Navy Blue faithful when I say it. I need a Saturday afternoon at the MCG watching Carlton run out with intensity and purpose and beat somebody they’re supposed to beat. I need the midfield brigade to win the clearance count. I need a forward line that converts. I need a back six that holds a lead.

I do not need John Longmire’s management team briefing journalists. I do not need Voss defending himself at a press conference in the middle of the season. I do not need speculation, posturing or the kind of footy-media theatre that benefits everyone except Carlton supporters who just want to see their club play well.

Voss said he has things to work through with his group. Longmire said he has a few things to consider. I’ve been considering Carlton’s predicament since before half of the current list was born, and the conclusion I keep reaching is this: none of the coaching names matter a damn until the football club decides, at a structural and cultural level, that stability is worth more than the next shiny option.

Fix the culture. Win some games. Then we’ll talk. Back in my day, that was the whole job description.