Carlton coach Michael Voss says Blues lacked fight in stunning upset loss to Richmond Tigers

Michael Voss has bemoaned Carlton’s lack of fight after Richmond rallied to pull off an early candidate for the upset AFL win of the season.

Down by 41 points midway through the second quarter, the young Tigers outworked Carlton after halftime to draw level at three-quarter time.

Voss said the Blues were also “untidy” in the last term as they had plenty of chances to overhaul Richmond, but lost by 13 points - 13.4 (82) to 9.15 (69).

The shock result means a harsh spotlight on Carlton, who were bundled out of the opening week of last year’s finals series after making a preliminary final in 2023.

“It was pretty disappointing, I’m not going to sugar coat it,” Voss said of Thursday night’s stunning result.

“To be in the position that we were in, early in the match, and give up that lead, I couldn’t be more disappointed.

“As the game went, you could see Richmond clearly were gathering more energy. Sometimes you just have to stay in that fight when things aren’t working for you.

“We just weren’t prepared to stay in that fight. Nine goals to two in the second half, it just shouldn’t happen that way.”

Asked if the Blues had underestimated Richmond, who are widely tipped to again struggle this season, Voss replied: “Gee, I’d really hope not.”

Voss added the loss needed to be kept in context, given it is round one, but added it needed a thorough review.

“Credit to Richmond, they kept bringing the energy and the fight. I guess the challenge back to our playing group is we have to stay in the fight as well,” he said.

“We will accept how this has played out - you don’t tuck this one away, you have to address it.

‘If this is a ‘nice’ ... if this is a ‘bad’ reminder about what’s important to us, then we take the reminder. But we have to do something about it.

“That game was there to be won, we gave up the lead that we had and we got what we deserved - that’s going to be hard to accept.”

Carlton had 19 inside 50s to eight in the last quarter, but only managed one goal when the game was in the balance.

Jack Silvagni kicked that goal in his first AFL game since tearing an ACL in 2023 and Voss said they should have moved him from defence earlier in the final term.

Voss is confident they will regain star forward Charlie Curnow from a knee injury for next Thurday night’s game against Hawthorn.