- ‘Big Ange’ broke Tottenham’s 17-year title drought
- Still found time to text his favourite footy coach
Carlton coach Michael Voss couldn’t help but smile when he saw Ange Postecoglou’s name pop up on his phone.
He hadn’t expected the trailblazing Tottenham Hotspur manager, and big Carlton fan, to get back to his message of congratulations for his Europa League triumph.
After all, Postecoglou is the biggest deal in Australian sport right now, following his trailblazing Europa League final win over Manchester United.
‘I wasn’t expecting a reply, but such is the man, he replied,’ Voss said on Thursday.
‘Short and succinct and the last message was ‘always watching’, which was a nice little message at the end.’
Postecoglou has long-standing links to Carlton, including being a part of the selection panel that chose Brendon Bolton as coach in 2015.
Michael Voss couldn’t believe it when Blues tragic Ange Postecoglou messaged him back during Tottenham’s wild Europa League celebrations
‘Big Ange’ is pictured holding the trophy he guided Spurs to on Wednesday night, finally giving the club a title after a 17-year drought
Voss spent time at Spurs over the off-season working with Postecoglou as part of a personal development trip and on Thursday morning relished his ‘special’ triumph.
‘He’s very forthright in his views, and I think some people have called him stubborn at times,’ he said.
‘But I just see a coach that really believes in what he thinks is the right way to do it, and he’s proven that over time.
‘I will just say that probably the message is not so much what he told me, but what I get out of it was, it’s about persistence and modelling the right things and you gotta believe, keep getting after it.
‘It really doesn’t matter what other people say. It’s more about what we think and what we believe.’
Voss hopes to draw on some of the adversity and pressure Postecoglou has overcome.
‘Watching another coach go about their business and how they’re able to do that, it probably does put into context the enormity of the job,’ he said ahead of Saturday’s clash with GWS at Marvel Stadium.
Postecoglou’s coaching style has set an example for his counterpart at Carlton
Voss’s under-achieving Carlton team are sitting 11th on the ladder
‘And the level of persistence it takes to be able to obviously experience the ultimate.
‘If anything, you walk away, you’re almost doubling down on the things you think are right. And that holds you in good stead.
‘Maybe there’s a little bit of lessons in that for us right now.’
The Blues will regain Tom De Koning as they attempt to overcome recent inconsistency against injury-hit GWS.
Voss was prepared for Giants skipper Toby Greene, in his 250th game, to set the tone, while he went in to bat for skipper Patrick Cripps, who has come under some criticism.
‘You get stuck a little bit between the criticism of we’re a one man band, and then as soon as a few others start joining him, it’s he’s not doing good enough,’ Voss said.
‘So I’ll take the share load version.
‘I’ll take the leader who’s willing to step back for others to step up and I think we’ll be ultimately a better club because of it.’
There is no timeline on Elijah Hollands’ return from leave for personal reasons.
The Blues will honour late club great Robert Walls with a one-minute round of applause at 12.42pm, seven minutes into the first quarter on Saturday – representing his 12 years at Carlton in the No.42 guernsey.
