Onwards and Upwards in 2006: Michael Voss
Inspirational skipper Michael Voss says the Brisbane Lions will not dwell on Saturday night's 139-point loss to St Kilda, despite describing the match as one of the toughest experiences he has endured in a 14-year AFL career.
The Lions were wounded by the weekend result - easily the biggest defeat of coach Leigh Matthews' tenure and the end of any thoughts of a 2005 finals campaign - but Voss said it would not affect their preparations for 2006.
"One thing I've known over a long period of times it that one season has no relevance to the next. And one game, one year has no relevance to the next year either," Voss said.
"Obviously Leigh sits down and reassess where the list is and where we can get better. But if anything it confirms to us that we've got a lot of hard work ahead of us and if the guys are willing to put their head down, we can get some good results."
Despite the Lions' hat-trick of premierships from 2001-2003 and grand final appearance in 2004, Voss is no stranger to losses, having debuted with the Brisbane Bears in 1992 and been part of the Lions squad that finished bottom of the table in 1998.
Still, he said the latter stages of Saturday night's match were among the tougher he had seen in an AFL environment.
"For me, at the 20-minute mark of the last quarter, it was shocking to be out there. One side was really down and the other side was just running and running and running," he said.
"That's what happens because they were full of energy and getting a lot of the ball and it was all pretty easy because they had the momentum. That was a really, really tough time in football, playing that last 10 or 15 minutes. Probably a lot of the game (was tough) but that last 10 or 15 minutes was really hard
"You always want to be able to go out there and compete as best you possibly can. To provide no resistance at all, other than being witches' hats for St Kilda (was disappointing). They were excellent in the way they played and we were very poor in our application. Putting the two together resulted in what actually turned out."
Voss said an insurmountable injury toll had, in the end, helped cruel the Lions' dreams of a seventh successive September campaign.
Star centre-half-forward Jonathan Brown was severely limited during the last third of the season by osteitis pubis and missed three of the last four games, including the St Kilda game, with the condition. Vice-captain and centre-half-back Justin Leppitsch did not play after Round 14 because of back trouble and All-Australian midfielder Nigel Lappin broke his leg in the Round 20 loss to Sydney.
Key big man Clark Keating missed the last four games with back trouble, playmaker Jason Akermanis was limited by back-related hamstring tightness during the last month of the season and Brownlow medallist Simon Black was ruled out of the Round 20 Sydney clash with a calf complaint and struggled for form thereafter.
"To be honest I would have thought there were a lot of sore bodies in the club. I would have thought that the guys were going in, in hope that we would win," Voss explained.
"But to be honest, I think our season was probably closing three weeks ago and you could see it over that period of time. It was starting to eat at the players and just that cumulative effect over the last three weeks, be it injuries or mental."
In the wake of the season-ending loss, Voss stopped to pay tribute to retiring triple-premiership teammate and 268-game veteran Darryl White.
The pair started with the then Bears in the same year and were stalwarts of the club in times good and bad.
"I pulled the guys in at three-quarter-time and said "let's make this as enjoyable as we possibly can for Whitey in his last quarter of AFL football."," he said.
" You never want to see a legend of the game go out like that but it was fantastic that we had him in the side. He's been close to me for that period of time - 1992 was when we first got here and we've enjoyed some fair highs and lows along the way.
"It's been a pretty amazing journey and one that I'm glad I shared with him."
Article courtesy of The Lions Official Website
The Lions were wounded by the weekend result - easily the biggest defeat of coach Leigh Matthews' tenure and the end of any thoughts of a 2005 finals campaign - but Voss said it would not affect their preparations for 2006.
"One thing I've known over a long period of times it that one season has no relevance to the next. And one game, one year has no relevance to the next year either," Voss said.
"Obviously Leigh sits down and reassess where the list is and where we can get better. But if anything it confirms to us that we've got a lot of hard work ahead of us and if the guys are willing to put their head down, we can get some good results."
Despite the Lions' hat-trick of premierships from 2001-2003 and grand final appearance in 2004, Voss is no stranger to losses, having debuted with the Brisbane Bears in 1992 and been part of the Lions squad that finished bottom of the table in 1998.
Still, he said the latter stages of Saturday night's match were among the tougher he had seen in an AFL environment.
"For me, at the 20-minute mark of the last quarter, it was shocking to be out there. One side was really down and the other side was just running and running and running," he said.
"That's what happens because they were full of energy and getting a lot of the ball and it was all pretty easy because they had the momentum. That was a really, really tough time in football, playing that last 10 or 15 minutes. Probably a lot of the game (was tough) but that last 10 or 15 minutes was really hard
"You always want to be able to go out there and compete as best you possibly can. To provide no resistance at all, other than being witches' hats for St Kilda (was disappointing). They were excellent in the way they played and we were very poor in our application. Putting the two together resulted in what actually turned out."
Voss said an insurmountable injury toll had, in the end, helped cruel the Lions' dreams of a seventh successive September campaign.
Star centre-half-forward Jonathan Brown was severely limited during the last third of the season by osteitis pubis and missed three of the last four games, including the St Kilda game, with the condition. Vice-captain and centre-half-back Justin Leppitsch did not play after Round 14 because of back trouble and All-Australian midfielder Nigel Lappin broke his leg in the Round 20 loss to Sydney.
Key big man Clark Keating missed the last four games with back trouble, playmaker Jason Akermanis was limited by back-related hamstring tightness during the last month of the season and Brownlow medallist Simon Black was ruled out of the Round 20 Sydney clash with a calf complaint and struggled for form thereafter.
"To be honest I would have thought there were a lot of sore bodies in the club. I would have thought that the guys were going in, in hope that we would win," Voss explained.
"But to be honest, I think our season was probably closing three weeks ago and you could see it over that period of time. It was starting to eat at the players and just that cumulative effect over the last three weeks, be it injuries or mental."
In the wake of the season-ending loss, Voss stopped to pay tribute to retiring triple-premiership teammate and 268-game veteran Darryl White.
The pair started with the then Bears in the same year and were stalwarts of the club in times good and bad.
"I pulled the guys in at three-quarter-time and said "let's make this as enjoyable as we possibly can for Whitey in his last quarter of AFL football."," he said.
" You never want to see a legend of the game go out like that but it was fantastic that we had him in the side. He's been close to me for that period of time - 1992 was when we first got here and we've enjoyed some fair highs and lows along the way.
"It's been a pretty amazing journey and one that I'm glad I shared with him."
Article courtesy of The Lions Official Website