# 276: Michael Voss (Part A)

An episode of [The Howie Games](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1146329262), 18 Aug 2026, 1 h 03 min.

Audio: https://enrichment.soundstack.com/4vjqq8/episode.flightcast.com/iwnsybg198wplo08uf5ln570.mp3

He has lived just about every life Australian football can offer. Prodigious young talent, champion player, premiership captain, Brisbane coach and, most recently, senior coach of Carlton. Vossy joins Howie for a fascinating and deeply personal conversation about the journey that shaped one of the game's greatest leaders. And behind the success are the people, challenges, lessons and moments that helped make him the footballer and leader he became. Plus, his take on the Blues rise up the ladder for a Wildcard berth since his departure earlier this year. This is Michael Voss beyond the headlines! His football, his leadership, his life and the journey that made him one of the game's greats. *** Follow the Howie Games on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehowiegamespod/ Follow the Howie Games on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thehowiegames See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] A listener production.
[0:04] Okay, are you recording?
[0:10] Welcome along, legends, to episode 276 of the Howie Games, part A.
[0:14] Thank you for tuning in.
[0:15] Featuring triple premiership captain with the Brisbane Lions, Michael Voss.
[0:20] Red short of spoiled.
[0:21] McRae, good work to knock it forward to Voss.
[0:23] Clean take.
[0:24] Round the body for number four.
[0:26] He's got it.
[0:28] Voss has four in the first quarter.
[0:31] The Lions have seven.
[0:32] To Voss.
[0:33] Voss is just the goal.
[0:35] By the advantage.
[0:35] That is magnificent.
[0:37] Oh, that is a great goal.
[0:38] Michael Voss, at his belligerent best, has kept the goal.
[0:44] What a leader.
[0:46] Now, looking back at Vision of Aussie in action to research this podcast, I had forgotten just how good he was, how brutal he was, and how unstoppable his lines were.
[0:57] They were a footballing force.
[0:58] From a brown line, three flags, a TV career, and two senior coaching roles at Brisbane and recently Carlton, Michael has lived an incredible life in football.
[1:06] He's been front-page news due to his heroics and when the axe has fallen.
[1:11] But like when he played, Michael shies away from nothing in this conversation.
[1:14] Yes.
[1:14] You can currently watch Vossi dominating with expert analysis on Fox Footy.
[1:19] He's always smiling, always positive.
[1:20] This is a man of character, humour and genuine warmth.
[1:24] Enjoy the story of Michael Voss.
[1:26] Driven.
[1:27] Ladies and gentlemen, number three, the captain, Michael Voss.
[1:37] So when you search and then you find...
[1:40] And know just where to go And thoughts that once used to cloud your mind You see clearly and now you know Mystery, what is to be revealed In King Selassie Come on children, trod with me We want to reach Mount Sinai
[2:00] I've been watching this man's highlights over the last three days.
[2:03] Michael Voss, I'd forgotten how big, strong and tough you were.
[2:06] Oh, Richardson!
[2:07] That bump was by Voss.
[2:08] And Alan Richardson, on his 31st birthday, is in a lot of strife.
[2:16] And I'd forgotten how good your football team was.
[2:21] Yes, the Brisbane Lions have done it.
[2:24] The Hawks, the Bombers, the Crows, they couldn't do it in the 80s and the 90s.
[2:30] But the Lions have gone back to back to back to become the greatest sign of the Moss era.
[2:36] They are football's invincibles.
[2:39] Welcome to the Howie Games, mate.
[2:40] I appreciate it.
[2:41] Pleasure to be here, mate.
[2:42] Thanks for inviting me along.
[2:43] I messaged you during the week and we were lining up at confirmation and you said, yep, and you've come in here on crutches.
[2:49] What is going on?
[2:50] Yes, that's the consequence of punishing my body through those particular years.
[2:56] So now it's payback.
[2:57] So what's this payback been?
[2:58] Just a running repair, really.
[3:00] I've got bone on bone in both knees, but the left knee needed some addressing pretty urgently.
[3:05] And like anything that's worn and torn, it just takes a little bit extra to recover from.
[3:11] So hence the crutches.
[3:13] How much of this goes on in your world, fixing your body up from what you put it through?
[3:16] Yeah.
[3:17] Well, I think just being able to utilise the last probably few weeks, now that I've got this little bit of spare time up my sleeve, was to focus on my health.
[3:26] And I've had a few things that I've been meaning to get done that I haven't quite addressed.
[3:29] And so I thought I'd use the opportunity to be able to do that.
[3:32] And this is obviously stage one.
[3:34] So that's the physical side of it.
[3:38] I go to the footy and you go to the footy.
[3:39] And I see the coaches in the box, right?
[3:43] And everyone does with a coach cam and the stress.
[3:46] And you've got former teammates, the Scott boys.
[3:48] You've got Craig McRae.
[3:49] You've all done the senior role.
[3:51] So when you step away from it, like emotionally, physically, you sleep, everything.
[3:59] Like, does your body sort of – like, what happens?
[4:02] What happens when all of a sudden you're not doing it and that pressure and stress is off?
[4:07] That's a good question.
[4:09] I think the first part that you go through is a bit of healing, but it's not as simple as just, okay, three days later I'm now okay.
[4:19] Right.
[4:19] No, I bet it's not.
[4:20] Yeah.
[4:21] I guess if you want to call it the engagement, the emotion of still being, if you want to call it, in the game is still there.
[4:27] So –
[4:30] It would have taken the better part of six to eight weeks to get those sleeping patterns back the way that you want to start to get separation.
[4:38] Let's start on the sleep.
[4:40] When you're coaching compared to that eight-week period after coaching, how have your sleeping patterns changed?
[4:44] It's different.
[4:45] It's different in that the mind's full versus the mind starts to become empty.
[4:49] They're different sort of sleeping patterns because one comes through sleeping through exhaustion and having something on your mind all the time.
[4:58] And waking up at, you know, five o'clock in the morning and thinking about the press conference you've got to have or thinking about the team selection you're still mulling over versus probably waking up and not necessarily having the next thing to do, which is just more different.
[5:14] It's not better or worse.
[5:15] It's just different.
[5:16] So...
[5:18] I think you've got to be okay with just to sit in that though, not force your way out of it, not try and muscle your way through it.
[5:25] It's just like, okay, this is what it is.
[5:26] And I'll use it as a chance to be able to regenerate both physically and also mentally and use it for that time.
[5:33] It's such a high-stress job.
[5:36] People that sit at home and watch their footy team, the stress of watching your team in a close game when you're a punter and then at the end of the day, you walk off, you won, you lose.
[5:45] You're going through press conferences.
[5:47] You're going through everything you're going on, through the highs and lows, and you've had plenty of both.
[5:51] So what does it do?
[5:53] Does it come out physically in your body, the pressure?
[5:57] There wouldn't be too many jobs in Australia that deal with the same level of pressure and stress that you coaches do.
[6:03] Yeah, absolutely.
[6:04] I think there's a – when you're sitting in the coach's box and you've sort of got the glass between you and the rest of the team, I liken it that you have all the emotional energy of a player, but you've got nowhere to spend it.
[6:18] So the only way you can do it is talk it, see some of the behaviour, see behind the glass with –
[6:24] covering your hands because you're abusing what's actually going on.
[6:27] So you've got this total emotional energy that a player would have, but as a coach, you've got nowhere to spend it.
[6:33] So that becomes the game day.
[6:34] So being able to contain that and being able to sort of put it in its place is really important.
[6:39] That's the first part.
[6:41] But the second part, I guess, during the week is that you've still got to model what your team needs to become.
[6:48] So running around and abusing
[6:51] sort of getting upset unnecessarily and bringing stress in the environment's not the solution.
[6:57] So I spend a lot of time in self-reflection.
[7:01] I mean, I'd almost every morning sort of start up a diary and just- When you're coaching?
[7:06] When I'm coaching, yeah.
[7:07] And what type of stuff?
[7:08] Like a verbal diary, a written diary?
[7:10] Yeah, just a verbal diary and just open the notes page up and I drive in.
[7:14] It's normally 20, 25 minutes between home and into Icon Park and-
[7:18] just debrief how I'm feeling and what's the day entail and, you know, what are the emotions that I'm actually feeling at that particular time?
[7:25] You know, what are some experiences that I've had in the past that's –
[7:28] helped me through these moments and, you know, always finish with something that's hopefully productive and serving because even though you do go through all that about as a coach, you can't make it about you.
[7:40] It's got to be about who you're serving and what you're there to be able to do and what you need to be for your team when you turn up through those doors.
[7:49] The voice notes in each run.
[7:49] You should have staffers.
[7:50] Do you have some of those on your phone or not?
[7:52] I have all of them on my phone.
[7:54] We'll discuss later whether we can just play a little snippet to try and give an understanding of what you're going through.
[7:58] So that's when you're in coaching, which we'll talk about.
[8:01] Again, since you've come out of it, what changes have you noticed in your physical state, your mental state, your spiritual state, your relationships, just everything once the pressure is not weighing down?
[8:15] Yeah.
[8:16] Well, it's never been one that I've necessarily been too concerned about because it's something that I've lived my whole life.
[8:24] I don't see pressure as a bad thing.
[8:30] Great things happen by having pressure.
[8:33] And so you're charged with that responsibility.
[8:35] So it's what lens you look at through.
[8:38] Stress, though, is a completely different thing.
[8:42] I guess they're the points when it is on you to be able to lead a direction and you're trying to come up and navigate your way through that.
[8:51] It's trying to compartmentalise the noise that's happening on the outside and be really clear on what needs to happen on the inside.
[8:57] So what I think sort of dissipates somewhat is the stress.
[9:03] And right now for me at the moment, it's hard to describe because I'm not necessarily saying I'm here and I'm not saying that I'm –
[9:10] I'm quite okay not to solve the problem right now.
[9:13] I'm quite okay to sort of sit and let it work itself out.
[9:17] And I think that's really important to be able to do because if I sort of start to forecast where I want to be and what I want to do and how I should be feeling and this doesn't feel right, I think you start muscling your way through something.
[9:30] I'm just prepared to wait, take my time, talk through things, think through things, what I would have done differently.
[9:37] You know, what could I have done more of?
[9:38] You know, all those sort of things you sort of work your way through and then, you know, at some point in time I'll be okay with it.
[9:45] The stress and putting it to the side, so you've got a family.
[9:50] So you come in from a win, loss or draw and you walk in the door, say it's a Saturday 2-10 game, right?
[9:58] So you get home at 5 o'clock, family's home, wife's home, the kids are home.
[10:04] You've had a tough day.
[10:06] Do you have to tell yourself something in the car at that stage, right?
[10:09] I have to flip out from being a coach and now I've got to be the dad because my kids might need me to do this or my wife, we're planning this holiday.
[10:16] How do you make that switch so you don't walk in and like as Bucks did the other day when he missed out on the Geelong job and kick the cat, I think is the expression he used.
[10:24] Yeah.
[10:25] I don't think you master that.
[10:26] I've heard plenty of coaches who have talked about that very aspect of how it dominates your life.
[10:33] But we choose the lifestyle.
[10:34] Yes.
[10:35] You know, our families, as your highlight of the fully invest in that.
[10:39] I get often asked about whether, you know, who my kids support.
[10:42] Do they support Brisbane?
[10:43] No, they don't have a choice.
[10:44] They support the team that I coach and I'm part of because –
[10:48] you ride that emotional journey.
[10:50] It's like we've got another set of another family that's part of us but not living with us.
[10:55] And so we ride those emotionals.
[10:58] I think what the important part is is trying to find that balance between what you want to take home and then what you need to separate at the same time.
[11:05] So the simple way that we've always sort of tried to address it as a family is that we've been lucky to, you know, we sit around, we have dinner together and we talk about each other's day.
[11:15] It's just not just about my day.
[11:17] It's about their day.
[11:18] And that's amazing how much they can make me feel better by just understanding what everyone else is going through.
[11:24] But also, they're invested in the journey as well.
[11:27] So I want to know how dad's doing.
[11:29] That was my next question.
[11:30] So what happens after it has been a tough day for dad and they've seen their dad on the news?
[11:34] You've had, and we will talk about so many positives in your football journey.
[11:37] So the positives far outweigh the negatives.
[11:40] But when you've had, for want of a better term, a negative day and your kids or your wife see you...
[11:45] in front of the cameras and the world weighing in on you.
[11:47] You're like, how do your family deal?
[11:49] How does your wife and kids deal with it?
[11:50] Well, that's the main part.
[11:52] They deal with it in their own way.
[11:53] I don't think you can sort of ignore it.
[11:55] But while you're taking all the bullets, you do have to be careful of the ricochet because sometimes that's where the most damage happens is the people that are emotionally invested in you, that are around you, that are supporting you.
[12:08] and just make sure you keep checking in on them.
[12:11] Hard thing to do when you're the one in the middle of it.
[12:13] Hard to do when you're probably the one in the middle of it causing all the pain, all the pleasure.
[12:18] But that's part of the journey that you sort of live on.
[12:20] And I guess the only thing I'd also say is that my family don't know anything different.
[12:26] They've known me as the player.
[12:28] They've known me as the coach and they sort of know what sport and what football's played and
[12:35] it's taken some things away from us, but it's also given us some enormous opportunity.
[12:41] So again, for me, it's about being able to compartmentalise that.
[12:45] So when you come from work and you have that separation between work and then when you come home and then being able to somehow find a way to be able to have other conversations rather than how your day was.
[12:56] And it's got to be about others, not about you.
[12:58] So you're a footballer.
[12:59] I keep an eye out on blokes from Tarellgan because I grew up...
[13:04] My high school years in a little place called Tyres, which is 10K out of Tarragon.
[13:08] So I'm the only... Is that Lake Tyres?
[13:11] No, Lake Tyres up past Lake's entrance.
[13:13] So this is just Tyres, like 10 minutes out of Tyres, out of Tarragon.
[13:17] I think I'm the only non-tough bloke ever to come out of Tarragon.
[13:22] Seriously, that's why I call him the big boy from Taralgan, Tim Memery.
[13:25] I keep an eye on him.
[13:27] Jeff Cunningham, he was a ferocious player that came back and played for the Maroons in Taralgan.
[13:32] I had mates play footy with him and he was tough.
[13:33] And then you're a Taralgan boy, you're tough.
[13:35] So I've let the Taralgan fraternity down.
[13:38] But you were born in Taralgan, but didn't spend much time there?
[13:40] No, our family's Orbost.
[13:41] Orbost.
[13:42] So this is East Gippsland.
[13:43] Yes, this is East Gippsland.
[13:44] So this is past Lakes entrance, past Lake Tyre.
[13:47] And what are the Voss family doing up there?
[13:50] Well, a variety of things, but we don't have a lot of uncles and aunties that live in that town anymore.
[13:58] It's something that we converge to, and there's a little town outside of Orbost called Marlow.
[14:02] Yeah, I know Marlow.
[14:02] Yeah.
[14:03] that my family go and every couple of years they all camp together and enjoy each other's company.
[14:08] So they're pretty intense times though, so you've got to be careful how long you spend there.
[14:14] I've got to say they are country folks.
[14:15] You get held in there, yeah.
[14:18] But look, that's sort of the community feel and that's what I've grown up as is that –
[14:23] Sport was a mechanism.
[14:24] It was a community.
[14:25] It was about bringing people together.
[14:26] I grew up at the Orbos Football Club.
[14:29] My dad was captain, coach, president of everything.
[14:32] Was he?
[14:33] I was boundary umpire at nine years of age, doing the seniors.
[14:36] So our family was well and truly immersed within the football community.
[14:41] And that didn't change from when I moved from Orbos to Queensland because then when we went to Morningside, we effectively played Orbos
[14:48] almost the same role.
[14:49] Dad become president of the club and we sort of lived around the place.
[14:53] And Brett and I were, you know, kicking footies well into the dark and waiting for dad to be able to finish his work before we got to go home.
[15:00] What's your dad's name?
[15:01] Gary.
[15:02] Gary.
[15:02] So was he coaching Orbost when you were a kid?
[15:06] Yes, he was.
[15:07] So did you go in the rooms and listen to Gazza?
[15:09] Oh, no, that was some of my favorite parts.
[15:11] I mean, I remember...
[15:12] the mornings of, you know, I sort of used to have this old, um, you know, you have the old Sharon.
[15:16] I never had a brand new Sharon, but you know, like every kid, you know, bouncing on the road and it was sort of brown in color.
[15:22] And you put the dubbing on it to keep it going.
[15:24] Well, so I'd walk out the back and dad used to always have the, you know, the boots out and he'd polish his boots and, um, he grabbed the tin out with all the, you know, the long stops and the white long stops and sort of replace his stops in the morning.
[15:36] And, um, and I'd sort of sit there waiting patiently and sort of sit on my ball and, and wait and, um,
[15:42] And the idea of getting a brand new ball back in the day was dad grabbed the nugget and sort of grabbed the ball and start polishing the ball and sort of, you know, I'd give it a good smell and I'd say, like, beautiful, this is great.
[15:52] I've got a brand new ball for the day.
[15:54] And that's where we spent most of our day.
[15:56] It was under 17s, into the reserves, into the seniors and, you know, well into the night as we obviously closed out the day.
[16:05] So that's just sort of most like a place where we lived and grew up and I've just got some great memories.
[16:09] Yeah.
[16:10] all my material things and things that I learnt was really in the locker room and you can take that for good or bad.
[16:18] So what did he bring to the table, Gary, when he was coaching?
[16:21] Was he a fire and brimstone man?
[16:22] Well, I think he might have been a fire and brimstone, but I think from listening to people who played with my dad and against him,
[16:33] I don't think he was one that you really wanted to cross too much.
[16:36] So I think he was well and truly known for being pretty tough.
[16:40] Right.
[16:41] A very successful coach in the local league.
[16:44] The two teams, they were in the same town, Orbost and Sonny Rovers, a town of 3,500 people, which now they've actually...
[16:51] merged, just for the town being a little bit smaller than what it used to be.
[16:55] But that rivalry was fierce.
[16:58] And I remember going to those games and watching the people on the hill and sort of almost like you're sort of almost Carlton Collingwood, sort of with the two tribes sort of yelling at one another and you weren't allowed to cross the street.
[17:10] One was Snowy Rovers and one was Allbost.
[17:12] And they were just some really special memories growing up.
[17:15] So who did you first play footy for?
[17:18] I didn't really have anyone to play for because we had under 10s and under 16s.
[17:23] So when I was four, I was playing on the 10s.
[17:26] Hang on.
[17:27] You were four playing in the under 10s?
[17:28] When I was four, I was playing under 10s.
[17:30] And when I was nine, I was playing under 16s.
[17:32] Who were you playing for?
[17:33] Well, when you went up to the local ground –
[17:36] you were split into two teams.
[17:37] So they picked two teams for the day.
[17:39] So it changed over time.
[17:41] So Footscray had some jumpers.
[17:44] I don't think Carlton ever had some jumpers, but I definitely know Footscray had some jumpers down there.
[17:49] In fact, I think Footscray was our region.
[17:51] So that's why we were able to get those jumpers.
[17:53] So they just split you in two teams and they were your teams for the day.
[17:57] So you were four playing in the under-10s, then nine in the under-16s.
[17:59] Nine in the under-16s.
[18:00] So if you're half any good when you're nine, you didn't hang around too long.
[18:03] And if you're half any good at 15, you played 17s.
[18:06] What were you like at four?
[18:07] Well, I have no idea.
[18:08] I can't remember.
[18:10] But I'm still here, so I mustn't have been too bad.
[18:14] And who was your team as a kid?
[18:16] Oh, Carlton was my team.
[18:17] Oh, was it?
[18:17] Yeah, Carlton was my team.
[18:18] So Dad, my whole family's really Richmond.
[18:22] So Dad played some reserves footy for the Tiggies while he was a police officer in Melbourne, so a period of time there.
[18:32] And then so he tried to convert me over, but my pop was a Carlton supporter and I'd spend pretty much every afternoon after I'd finished school, we'd go down to Nan and Pops and Pops sort of swayed me over to the Carlton side of things.
[18:45] And I think probably through that period of time it helped that, you know, through 86, 87, through that period of time they had a little bit of success.
[18:52] So who were your guys?
[18:53] Well, Wayne Johnson, Kenny Hunter.
[18:56] Okay, old school Carl.
[18:58] Wayne Harms, Roddy Ashman.
[19:01] when sticks came along, he was, he was another one.
[19:03] Um, one of my favorite photos actually, um, coaching Carlton was, uh, the dominator and Kenny Hunter turned up at, uh, at the ground.
[19:13] And I got to have a photo with those two guys because they were the two numbers I had on my back.
[19:16] I had number seven and I had number nine.
[19:19] Um, and Brett and I, uh, Brett was Richmond and I was Carlton.
[19:23] And so there was plenty of, um, plenty of games, Carlton versus Richmond in the front yard.
[19:27] And, um,
[19:28] I can thankfully report that Carlton didn't lose too many times.
[19:31] That's good to hear.
[19:33] Sorry, bro.
[19:36] So in Latrobe Valley, it was, you know, when Dad had the time, you know, we'd jump in the forward fair lane and I'd support the Hawks.
[19:43] So we'd go to Waverley, which was manageable.
[19:46] But where you are to Princess Park, so you didn't go.
[19:51] That's a four-hour trip in the day.
[19:53] Yeah, never went.
[19:53] We went once.
[19:54] My first game of AFL football or VFL at that particular time was the Hawks versus Carlton at Waverley Park because it was on that side of town.
[20:01] It was actually with the under-17s.
[20:03] We jumped in the bus.
[20:05] Dad was coaching the team at the time.
[20:07] So we went sort of for a bit of a day trip.
[20:09] And so I was that excited because, you know, obviously I get to see my team live for the first time, sitting in those cold seats.
[20:16] Oh, Waverly Park, yeah, those bench seats.
[20:19] Those bench seats and –
[20:20] And then sort of then playing there was obviously a completely different experience, again, ironically.
[20:25] But, yeah, remember those road trips and that's what you did.
[20:28] And there were some good times on those bus trips on the way back.
[20:31] Even at 10, 11 years of age, there were some good songs that were sung and some great memories.
[20:37] And then I was thinking about this the other day.
[20:40] It was – it'd get to –
[20:43] In my head, it was I'd come back from Waverley and hope the Hawks were on the replay.
[20:47] But it was Sandy throwing.
[20:49] And now we'll go to Carlton Hawthorne.
[20:51] It's halfway through the second quarter at Waverley.
[20:54] And the Blues lead by 15 points.
[20:56] And Kernahan's lining up for goal.
[20:57] And you didn't even know if you'd see your team.
[20:58] Yep.
[20:59] Well, it was that.
[21:00] It was, you know, you had one channel, one game of the day.
[21:04] Yeah.
[21:06] Anything that you watched, if you weren't on the game of the day, you were watching winners a little bit later.
[21:10] Winners with Drew Morfitt.
[21:11] It was a very, very simple life for us.
[21:13] It was football in the winter and it was cricket in the summer and that's the way that we lived.
[21:17] It was, I can't remember the channel, Channel O maybe, an ABC.
[21:21] They might have been the two channels.
[21:23] You had to get the ears on the antenna right.
[21:25] That's exactly right.
[21:26] Yeah.
[21:28] So when you think about that image, you sort of think, oh, was it that long ago?
[21:31] I know.
[21:32] Was it actually that long ago?
[21:33] And you sort of see the way that it is now and the way it's broadcast today and covered.
[21:36] It's just absolutely extraordinary.
[21:40] But the main teams were played.
[21:41] It was always Carlton.
[21:43] It was always Essendon, Richmond, Hawthorne, the teams that were sort of successful throughout the period of time.
[21:47] I never saw Footscray.
[21:49] I never saw Fitzroy.
[21:50] I never saw those teams on the TV.
[21:53] They probably were on.
[21:54] Yeah.
[21:55] I certainly never got to see them too much.
[21:56] So why'd you move to Queensland?
[21:57] How old were you?
[21:59] Opportunity, really.
[22:00] Like it was, we were 12.
[22:02] In 86, we came up for a holiday.
[22:04] In 87, we moved.
[22:05] That's a long way from South Gippsland.
[22:07] It is.
[22:07] My uncle lived up there.
[22:09] My uncle and auntie and cousins lived up there.
[22:11] And so we thought we'd go for a bit of a holiday.
[22:14] And we came up.
[22:15] We loved what was going on.
[22:17] Orbos was sort of changing a little bit.
[22:19] It was known for the timber mills.
[22:21] I think 13 timber mills through the region at that time.
[22:25] that changed with reforestation and all those sorts of things that Tim Mills started to shut down.
[22:31] So I guess the industry started to close down quite a fair bit.
[22:35] So we decided to go on a different path and come to Queensland, new opportunity for the family.
[22:40] And as it turned out, the Brisbane Bears were coming together at the exact same year.
[22:45] And so we were the weekly drivers down to the coast and
[22:48] We were inaugural members of the Brisbane Bears through that period of time, yeah.
[22:52] So you went and saw the whiz in action?
[22:54] Went and saw the whiz in action.
[22:56] Tried to jump.
[22:58] You know, we knew someone from Morningside who was the property steward, Graham Smarty, and he was a Morningside guy.
[23:07] So I'd sort of roll in at the front, wait to –
[23:10] to get into the Bears' rooms.
[23:11] And then when we got in the Bears' rooms, we jumped the fence to go into the opposition.
[23:15] So, you know, the Bears weren't that much good at that particular time.
[23:18] So we'd sort of jump the fence and try and steal some socks from the opposition and then sort of, yeah, go out and go home.
[23:25] Great memories.
[23:27] So at what age do you think all of a sudden it was like, it's hard for a kid to remember back, but there could be potentially a pathway to football?
[23:37] Were you a dominant junior?
[23:40] I think you underestimated a little bit.
[23:42] I underestimated probably a little bit about what I was doing through that period of time because I had nothing to compare against.
[23:49] And Queensland was very much very isolated still at that point in time and was sort of seen as somewhat a second-class citizen when it come to AFL football.
[23:59] There's a couple of moments.
[24:01] So I had...
[24:03] I think it was a Morningside-Southport game and I was just walking on again, bouncing my ball, sort of that brown.
[24:10] I still think I still had it by that time.
[24:13] And I'm bouncing the ball and this guy tapped me on the shoulder and I looked up and it was Ian Stewart.
[24:17] And I must have been… Triple Brownlow medalist?
[24:20] Triple Brownlow medalist.
[24:21] I must have been maybe about 15 at that particular time.
[24:25] And he said, son, if you don't play NFL football, I'm going to chase you down.
[24:27] Yeah.
[24:29] And I was like, wow.
[24:30] It's a different way to motivate it.
[24:31] I was like, wow.
[24:33] So, and I knew who he was because Ben, his son, was playing for Southport.
[24:39] So I'd sort of known who he was.
[24:41] I raced inside.
[24:42] I said, Dad, you get...
[24:44] no idea what any shit just told me.
[24:46] And dad didn't blink.
[24:48] It's a good son.
[24:50] Yeah.
[24:50] Keep moving on.
[24:52] That was probably realistically the first time I sort of thought that I could play when you're getting acknowledged like that from someone of significant note like that to tap you on the shoulder and-
[25:02] and be able to acknowledge.
[25:03] But, yeah, look, I was part of all the state teams.
[25:06] I won a lot of awards through those period of time.
[25:08] Did you kick 14 goals in an under-17 match?
[25:11] I kicked 14 goals.
[25:12] 14 goals, too.
[25:13] So I'm ruling the two.
[25:14] 14, too.
[25:15] Unfortunately, we couldn't find any highlights.
[25:17] What position were you playing?
[25:18] Who were you playing for, and who did you kick 14 against?
[25:20] Well, to self-indulge for a second.
[25:23] This is what we do on this show.
[25:25] Yeah.
[25:25] So I'd played in the reserves.
[25:28] I was playing for the reserves for the Brisbane Bears.
[25:31] And the week before I left, I can't remember exactly.
[25:35] It might have been Hawthorne.
[25:36] I couldn't have those facts wrong.
[25:38] But I had 22 disposals in one quarter.
[25:40] In a quarter?
[25:41] In the reserves.
[25:42] And...
[25:43] I probably might have played seniors the week after, but the championships was the week after.
[25:50] And Wolsey was adamant at that time that I need to experience, you know, grow up at my speed, not, you know, get ahead of it too quickly.
[25:59] So he was determined for me to be able to play in the championships.
[26:04] So I went to the championships, but as part of doing that, it was almost like they didn't want me to play every single game and every single minute and play midfield.
[26:12] So I ended up playing full forward in a couple of games.
[26:15] And that game that I played in, I played full forward, I ended up kicking 14 goals.
[26:19] Against who?
[26:21] I can't even remember.
[26:22] It might have been Tasmania.
[26:23] I could have those facts wrong.
[26:25] 14 is 14, bossy.
[26:26] So 14 is 14, doesn't matter.
[26:27] So that was the two-tier competition back then.
[26:32] But, yeah, like, again, I don't sort of think it's a bit surreal.
[26:35] And it was at Trelgan.
[26:37] I was in Trelgan.
[26:37] Yeah, the day after my birthday.
[26:39] Right.
[26:39] There you go.
[26:40] So it was the 8th of July.
[26:40] Well, we got a bit of vision.
[26:42] We got some vision.
[26:44] So this is you.
[26:45] You'll have to tell us.
[26:46] Just have a bit of a listen.
[26:48] And this is you.
[26:48] You can tell us how old you were because I've got no idea.
[26:50] But this came up on the YouTube.
[26:53] He is certainly not getting much of the action.
[26:55] Here's boss, Michael Boss, who's just 16 years of age, plays it for Morningside.
[27:00] And the Siska.
[27:01] Well, I wasn't going to highlight that.
[27:04] Must have been hard to get yourself up after Collingwood being beaten.
[27:07] Here's boss, the 16-year-old.
[27:09] In the number 44, you look a bit like Richard Osborne, to be honest.
[27:12] Good point, Gerard.
[27:13] I'll pay that.
[27:14] So you're 16 at this stage, but you've got Gerard Healy and you've got Bruce McEvaney commentating.
[27:19] So this is a state game against, who is this, New South Wales or?
[27:23] Yeah, New South Wales.
[27:24] So, Queensland played against New South Wales.
[27:26] SCG?
[27:28] At the SCG.
[27:28] Right.
[27:29] As you can see, my body shape is a little bit different to what it is now.
[27:32] You haven't got that bloody – so, for the people that don't know Vossi, Vossi's chest arrives and five minutes later the rest of Vossi arrives.
[27:39] I weight 71 kilos.
[27:40] 71 kilos.
[27:41] That year.
[27:41] Right.
[27:41] I still do, Vossi, but anyway.
[27:44] I always have a bit of a joke.
[27:46] It's only 10 kilos lighter than what I am today.
[27:49] But, yeah, that was 71 kilos, 16.
[27:53] And then at the back end of that year, I played.
[27:56] That's when I played my first game against Fitzroy at Princess Park.
[27:59] Which we'll get to.
[28:00] The week after the championships.
[28:01] After the championships.
[28:02] So how do you first end up?
[28:05] At the Brisbane Bears, because when I think Brisbane Bears, I think outrageous uniforms, promos, private owners, Warwick, Kappa, but you wouldn't have known any different, and Robert Wall.
[28:16] So what was it like walking into that football club, some tough men, and Wallsie, who obviously we just recently lost.
[28:24] How did he approach a 16-year-old Michael Voss?
[28:25] What was it like?
[28:26] Yeah.
[28:27] Well, I got given a scholarship through the QAFL at that particular time, and the right was to train with the Brisbane Bears through the summer.
[28:38] So at that point in time, that's all I thought it was.
[28:40] I was still in school in year 11 at school, and so I was sort of working my way through that, trying to train in the afternoons, get picked up by Matty Campbell on the way to the freeway.
[28:50] So I'd wait out.
[28:52] Beanley, where Beanley is, which is halfway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane and sort of wait to get picked up in the school bag and he'd pick me up with David Wern and a couple of others, Simon Lewis, and we'd sort of head down the freeway.
[29:04] I'd train the afternoon, jump back in the car and –
[29:07] And head home.
[29:08] But I found out that I was on the list in February the following year.
[29:13] So in February 1992.
[29:14] And I found it through the paper.
[29:17] No one told me.
[29:18] You didn't even know you were on the list?
[29:19] No, the list lodgements were in and in the career mail was the list of every AFL club.
[29:25] And so I opened up the paper, career mail, and scanned down the list and there's my name.
[29:30] So I then rang my dad, then followed up with Shono Sullivan, who's now, of course, at Carlton.
[29:37] I was going, mate, like, yeah, what's going on here?
[29:39] He goes, oh, well, he's on the list.
[29:40] So that's how I found out I was on the list.
[29:42] And that was the priority Queenslanders at that time.
[29:44] So I guess it's effectively similar to the academy situation that is today.
[29:50] And, mate, that's how I found out I was on the list.
[29:52] And Jason Akemanis was on the list through that way.
[29:56] Clark Heating was through that line.
[29:58] They had Northern Territory in that region at that particular time.
[30:01] So Darryl White was another one.
[30:06] Mark Sashkoff came through the same system.
[30:09] So the nucleus of that group was effectively a bunch of Queensland and Northern Territory youngsters that were coming through together, which made it quite a memorable experience.
[30:18] As far as Wolsey is concerned, no favours whatsoever.
[30:23] Was he tough?
[30:24] He was tough.
[30:24] He was...
[30:25] There's two things I learned from Walls, and I've spoken about this a lot, but his professionalism and work ethic was the thing as a minimum he demanded.
[30:33] And I've copped that many sprays from him, and I think it's something that you appreciate more after the fact than before the fact because, you know, when you're all lined up and there's 20 of you all sitting in the locker room and he's going three or one by one and sort of assessing the game.
[30:52] What type of stuff would he say?
[30:54] Well, I remember one, he called me a coward for falling over.
[30:58] And I remember one day I came in, I was 94, played against Richmond, and I was on crutches, actually, ironically, and I'd only played about 10 minutes of the game.
[31:09] And I'm sort of in the corner, I'm sort of thinking, oh, well, I'm free from a spray here.
[31:13] We've been beaten by plenty.
[31:15] I'm on crutches.
[31:16] I'm on crutches.
[31:16] Surely I'm free from any spray.
[31:19] I think I was nearly the only one that got the spray.
[31:21] Yeah.
[31:22] So it was along the lines of, bossy, you're coming here with your hat on backwards, looking at your muscles in the mirror, said, you make sure you turn up Wednesday, son, and you train.
[31:31] And it was just brutal.
[31:33] But that was the grounding I think we all sort of had, which maybe hardened us a little bit more.
[31:40] But some of the lessons we got were brutal.
[31:42] I mean, it was, you know, our training –
[31:44] And sometimes through the week, we'd have two, three-hour training sessions Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and try and play Saturday.
[31:51] So you'd do a big session on Friday.
[31:52] Oh, mate, we'd get smashed sometimes.
[31:54] And then roll out the next day.
[31:55] Roll out the next day.
[31:56] In the Brisbane, Queensland heat.
[31:57] Yep.
[31:59] And that was the way he wanted the teachers give us grounding.
[32:03] But then I also had great mentors.
[32:06] We weren't so much totally successful, but I did have Roger Merritt.
[32:10] I had Michael McLean.
[32:11] I had Craig Lambert.
[32:12] I had John Gastev.
[32:13] Johnny Gastev.
[32:15] You know, I had all these sort of players that have come from other parts, you know, whether it was the Waffle or whether it was the NFL footy.
[32:21] Marty Leslie was another one, and they were just tough men.
[32:26] And so being able to have them as leaders, even though we weren't probably winning, and it was more because we were younger.
[32:32] You had the real senior guys and them and their real youth, but they were real mentors through that period of time.
[32:38] And it's something that they're guys that we want to fold through.
[32:40] And I think about the success today of the Brisbane Lions.
[32:43] It was really born off what this group of people were prepared to do, Wallsie's choices of
[32:50] not making it about more senior players coming in.
[32:53] He was going to nurture the youth and we were going to do it the right way.
[32:57] And that's a significant legacy piece that he's now left behind and they're probably experiencing the benefit of that today.
[33:04] Was he the one that told you you were going to play your first game?
[33:06] He was.
[33:07] So it wasn't in the paper?
[33:09] No, he told me the week after I'd come back from the championships that
[33:14] I was ready to go.
[33:16] Now, when Robert Walls tells you you're ready to go, you feel bulletproof because you've had to earn that compliment for a long time.
[33:26] And, you know, whether that's through calling you a coward because you fall over or trying to lift you up and trying to explain what's required to play AFL football, whether it was through the training and the one-on-ones that I did and, you know, the 45 minutes of doing one-on-ones, like it was as tough a training as I've ever done in my whole life.
[33:44] Back to Vossi in a moment.
[33:45] Now, I'm excited about this.
[33:47] Next up on the podcast, to celebrate our podcast's 10-year anniversary, your three most popular guests of all time, three guests whose episodes have each been downloaded over one million times will rejoin the show over the next month or so.
[34:03] I'm not giving away who they are.
[34:04] You'll have to tune in, but it starts next week, and we are calling it The Millionaires Club.
[34:16] I welcome you, and it's credit to you, to what we are calling the Millionaire's Club because your podcast episode has been listened to more than one million times.
[34:26] Wow.
[34:27] So that was on the 23rd of July, 2017, which was 3,195 days ago.
[34:31] Wow, that is extraordinary.
[34:37] That episode, which blows my mind, has been listened to 1,164,297 times.
[34:46] So it is welcome to you to what we are calling the Millionaire's Club.
[34:51] That's not the fee, is it, mate?
[34:53] No.
[34:53] So there's a disclaimer that there's no cash as a result of this, unfortunately.
[35:01] The Millionaires Club, new episodes with your three favourite guests starting next week on the Howie Games.
[35:13] Let's get back to Vossi.
[35:16] So your first game, round 18, 1992, for the mighty Brisbane Bears versus Fitzroy.
[35:23] You were 17 years of age, 17 years and 11 days.
[35:26] You won 114 to 73 in front of a middling crowd of 6,461.
[35:34] Melbourne's wintry weather wasn't a pleasant sight for the Bears, but their opening 15 minutes gave the Lions warning of what could be.
[35:40] Owens was instrumental in their start, booting two goals.
[35:44] While the Lions struggled, their best play coming from Stevens in setting up Osborne.
[35:49] Darrell White experienced an early spring.
[35:51] It brought another goal surge from the visitors, with Owen kicking his fourth.
[35:55] At siren time, it was Brisbane home by 41 points, a win they'll long remember.
[36:01] So Lynchy and Roozie played for Fitzroy alongside Doc Wieldon and Osborne.
[36:06] You had Ashcroft.
[36:08] Richard Champion, my man Johnny Gastev, Merritt, Zanotti.
[36:13] You had 26 disposals.
[36:16] Ron Barassi.
[36:18] gave you a vote.
[36:19] Oh, right.
[36:20] There you go.
[36:21] What are your memories of that day?
[36:22] There's some good names there, like Gastev Merritt, Zanotti, Champion, Ashcroft, and now there's more Ashcrofts obviously getting around.
[36:29] I remember my first disposal.
[36:31] I remember picking it up about halfback flank at the facility end.
[36:38] The facility end.
[36:39] The facility end now.
[36:42] And kicking it as long as I possibly could, and I think the ball went out of bounds, and there was a stoppage.
[36:46] That was my first disposal in AFL football.
[36:48] Okay.
[36:48] Yeah, I was lucky.
[36:49] I got away with a bit of a fly.
[36:50] I played on Johnny Blakey, and he was playing for Fitzroy at that particular time as well, and just roamed the wing for the game, and happened to have a pretty good game.
[37:02] I don't think we'd won there in Melbourne for three years.
[37:05] Yeah.
[37:07] So it was a pretty significant day, the fact that we'd won the game, but the fact we hadn't actually won there for the better part of three years in Melbourne made the day pretty special.
[37:16] The next week, I went – sorry, we had a bye.
[37:19] You had a bye because I thought you got dropped.
[37:21] Do you want to know what round two was?
[37:22] What, what?
[37:23] Round two, we went to West Coast.
[37:24] Yeah.
[37:25] And in 1992, you remember West Coast being the formidable team there was.
[37:29] I had a choice to line up on Chris Mainwaring or Peter Matera.
[37:34] You were given the choice.
[37:35] I was given the choice.
[37:36] I picked Peter Matera.
[37:37] Oh, quick.
[37:38] And I regretted that straight away.
[37:41] I think we lost by about 130 points.
[37:44] Okay.
[37:45] I don't know the exact margin, but it was at the WACA.
[37:48] They were at their best.
[37:49] I got knocked out very early on in the game, went to the interchange.
[37:53] That was the days when you went to the interchange, you stayed there.
[37:56] I came back on the field as a prize for getting knocked out and playing on Peter Materia for the first part of the game.
[38:01] I got to play on John Worsfold.
[38:03] After that.
[38:04] After that.
[38:05] The chemist.
[38:06] And I just remember him bashing me for the whole time.
[38:08] Did he?
[38:09] Look at me.
[38:09] Look at the size of me.
[38:10] Yeah, well, that's true.
[38:11] I'm 71 kilos.
[38:12] So you think about all these hardened lessons you've learnt, it's this passage that you just, everyone follows.
[38:19] And I sort of learn it the hard way and I learn off some of the toughest and people I respect the most.
[38:23] And hopefully I've given a few others a few lessons along the way as well that they've learnt.
[38:28] We'll get to some of those.
[38:30] So you look at where you finished.
[38:32] That year, 14th or 15th.
[38:34] 93, you finished 13th.
[38:36] 94, you finished 12th.
[38:39] 95, you're going in a similarly bad state.
[38:42] Wolsey gets halfway through the year and says he's done.
[38:45] And then you go on a tear to win six or seven and make the finals.
[38:49] Did he go a bit early?
[38:50] He might have gone a bit early.
[38:52] I think I know what that feels like at the moment.
[38:56] Well, yeah, no, that's a very good point.
[38:59] What goes around comes around.
[39:00] No, that's it.
[39:01] But he continued to coach.
[39:04] I don't know what it was, mate.
[39:05] Like it's funny when you sort of all of a sudden feel like –
[39:10] You're not hampered by much and you sort of have, I guess, a freedom to play.
[39:16] Wolves' demeanour had changed a little bit and there was a really significant moment three-quarter time when we played against the Hawks.
[39:24] Oh, not in the sun.
[39:25] Yes, in the sun.
[39:26] Oh, you might as well go through it.
[39:27] I remember watching it as a kid.
[39:29] Hawthorne were lots up, weren't they?
[39:32] Yeah, they were up by a fair bit.
[39:32] Tell us the story and break my heart.
[39:34] Was it about 50-year-old points?
[39:36] I reckon it was a 40, something like that.
[39:37] Yeah, something like that.
[39:38] Yeah.
[39:39] Ballsy can't believe it.
[39:41] Look at that.
[39:43] He signaled his intention for the next year.
[39:47] He won't be here with this side, but he's certainly joyful today.
[39:53] That's Cyrus.
[39:56] And then we were lucky we had a bit of breeze going one way and they just lowered the intensity.
[40:00] We upped it and we ended up winning the game and that sort of got us on a roll.
[40:04] But famously there was – did he point out that the Hawks were – He did.
[40:07] He did.
[40:07] In the shade?
[40:08] I don't know whether it did anything.
[40:10] Right.
[40:10] But, yeah, there's –
[40:12] Obviously, wherever the light towers were, they'd sort of went over to the other side of the ground and decided to sit in the shade.
[40:19] And I guess every coach is looking for one cool thing to hang their head on.
[40:22] We're down by plenty.
[40:24] And that's sort of almost the catalyst for the next season.
[40:28] I guess four or five years where it centers on because the confidence sort of grew.
[40:32] The talent was there.
[40:33] We just weren't fulfilling our talent at that particular time.
[40:37] And, you know, obviously we were able to get over in that game.
[40:39] And then we played our first final at the end of that year against Carlton at the MCG.
[40:43] Just got rolled by the Blues.
[40:46] Such was probably the form we were in at that particular time.
[40:50] So, and they went, they were obviously an incredible football team that went on to win the premiership.
[40:54] So it builds and builds and builds.
[40:56] The success starts to come.
[40:58] Johnny North, he takes over.
[41:00] 96, your third, 15-6.
[41:02] You win a qualifier, so you win your first final.
[41:04] You win a semi.
[41:05] You lose a prelim by 38 points, which I don't reckon you played in.
[41:08] No.
[41:11] We'll get to the brown low, but end of 96, the Brisbane Bears are flying and then no more Brisbane Bears.
[41:18] Yeah.
[41:20] Yeah, the merger.
[41:22] Tell us about that.
[41:23] What was it like?
[41:23] It was pretty incredible when you think back at it.
[41:26] The club was finally having success.
[41:28] Yeah.
[41:29] You finished third on the ladder.
[41:30] And I think that's probably where the tension lied between, you know, obviously the angst of, you know, Fitzroy winding up and perhaps how they're feeling like they were being treated by the administration at that particular time.
[41:43] But then also there was the other angst, which was finally as a football club, we were forging on identity, actually starting to earn some respect.
[41:52] And I remember before we flew out and when it had all been announced, I think it was on the Wednesday or the Thursday.
[41:59] It was mid-season.
[42:00] Yeah, mid-season.
[42:01] And we were sitting at the – we got debriefed at the airport about what's actually transpired because we were none the wiser either.
[42:08] We'd sort of been –
[42:09] you know, a lot of discussion.
[42:10] Like the rumours in a locker room and all sorts of things.
[42:13] Are we going to get, you know, paid?
[42:15] But I think we saw out that year and we played, ended up playing Fitzroy later in that year and, and that was, that was actually a bit scary actually because it was sort of, you know, tensions were at their absolute peak through that time and,
[42:29] What do you mean scary, physically on the ground?
[42:31] Well, they sort of charged the field.
[42:32] That's when you could.
[42:33] Oh, yeah, of course.
[42:34] But just the angst leading up to it was quite a fair bit.
[42:39] And so slightly concerned by that.
[42:41] So I guess the focus was to get off the ground as quick as you possibly can.
[42:47] And quite rightly, like you had a group of supporters that felt like they were losing their club that had been there for a long time.
[42:54] Fitzroy, yeah.
[42:54] Yeah, generationals, generations of support.
[42:58] that had been there and it was understandable why the emotion existed.
[43:04] What I was struggling to come to terms is why it was as directed as us.
[43:06] Yeah.
[43:07] It really had nothing to do with us.
[43:09] We were part of the club that we were merging with, but it really had not much to do with us.
[43:13] And the following year, that transition wasn't handled as well as it could have.
[43:20] We got through the 1997 season, but in 1998 is when it collided.
[43:25] We had –
[43:27] I think it was upwards of eight to 10 players that came over from Fitzroy to the Brisbane Bears.
[43:32] We sort of had almost been stuck together, put together some conflict in the locker room, no doubt.
[43:39] People were probably feeling a little bit threatened by players coming in who were highly talented players.
[43:44] um, as well.
[43:45] And so it probably took us a couple of years to, to figure some things out.
[43:48] Um, there's probably still some back office things happening.
[43:51] There was still a supporter base that probably wasn't really totally aligned.
[43:55] So, you know, effectively, you're these two clubs that are playing under this one banner.
[44:00] Um,
[44:00] And I guess to fast forward a little bit, that's why the significance of 2001 was so big because it was almost like this unification of a club where two supporter bases finally had come together.
[44:12] We could sort of believe in something bigger than ourselves.
[44:15] And that's where I felt like the real change happened within the football club.
[44:20] 1996, you become alongside James Hurd, a Brownlow medalist.
[44:25] I couldn't find the whole count.
[44:26] I'll show you a clip in a moment.
[44:28] But come the final round, I think Hurdy got three at the end.
[44:33] So you were in – were you in an – had you got votes in the final round?
[44:37] I couldn't lose.
[44:37] Yeah, I was three votes ahead.
[44:39] Okay.
[44:39] We got smashed by Collingwood at Victoria Park, so I knew I was no chance of getting some votes.
[44:46] But I'd watched the Western Bulldogs and Essendon game.
[44:50] And Chris Grant, who was three votes behind, and James Heard were the best two players on the ground.
[44:56] So as I remember, I remember sitting down and looking at the votes, trying to absorb, firstly, that I can't lose it.
[45:03] But then I also knew that someone would be standing beside me because those two guys were clearly the best two guys on the ground.
[45:09] Chris Grant gets two votes.
[45:10] James Heard gets three votes.
[45:12] And then James Heard's the Brownlow medalist.
[45:13] alongside you with Bruce McEvaney.
[45:16] And you spoke pretty well, crisply, actually.
[45:18] Did I?
[45:18] Yeah, just have a listen to what you had to say here.
[45:21] The two mum and dad are in Brisbane right now, the Gabba.
[45:25] Gary and Seth.
[45:26] I don't think you've seen them since Saturday.
[45:28] Am I right in saying that?
[45:29] Yeah, that's right.
[45:31] Got a few words for them and for the people in Brisbane right now?
[45:36] Just the people back in Brisbane.
[45:39] It's a fantastic feeling.
[45:40] Mum and dad.
[45:42] Hope you don't get two poleks tonight.
[45:48] Yeah, and your old man gives a pump of the fist back to you because he's on the wire up there in Brisbane, and you've told him not to get poleks.
[45:54] He's a good speech.
[45:56] Well, it didn't work.
[45:57] So, Dad, the extension of that story is Dad got locked in the rooms back at the Gabba.
[46:04] Did he?
[46:05] Everyone had shut down and...
[46:07] He ended up having to climb out a window and go down one of the drain pipes and go home.
[46:13] So, yeah, hauled down a cab and got his way home.
[46:16] So he clearly didn't listen to the instructions.
[46:18] But no, very, very memorable.
[46:20] I mean, it's one of those things I don't think you sort of expect to come along in your career.
[46:24] I mean, I just turned 21 years of age.
[46:27] So...
[46:28] But, yeah, the team was going well.
[46:30] You know, fortunately I had a really good season and was fortunate enough to stand up next to Hurdy.
[46:35] We've been privileged to have Lee Matthews on the podcast last year.
[46:39] The man's got an aura about him, obviously.
[46:41] I was a bit edgy when he came in here.
[46:45] Was it an immediate impact he had on the Lions when he arrived or did it slowly permeate?
[46:51] What are your early memories of Lee arriving?
[46:54] It was immediate and I...
[46:57] To understand his impact, you've got to go back just a little bit in the lead-up to that.
[47:03] As a football club, we weren't that well-resourced.
[47:08] Players certainly had lots of problems with that.
[47:11] We didn't feel like we were sort of – we still felt like we were in somewhat the amateur era rather than the professional era.
[47:17] So when we did have to get to the position where we were changing coaches, the next person was always going to be really important.
[47:23] And one of the first things that Lee said when he came in –
[47:26] He said, boys, we're going to get the best for you.
[47:29] So we're going to get the best people.
[47:30] We're going to get the best program.
[47:33] And it's one thing to say it, but then there's another thing to go and do it.
[47:36] And, you know, from everything that sort of happened from that point in time, that was really important.
[47:42] He also said a second thing, which was really powerful.
[47:45] He said, I know I'm going to be here for the future.
[47:47] I don't know whether all of you are going to be here.
[47:49] Yeah.
[47:50] And I think that was probably the first time when we'd sort of had someone with that level of authority to be able to step in and just go, hey, like, we're going to get cracking here.
[48:01] He also just had this respected voice within Melbourne circles in that when Lee Matthews spoke, people listened.
[48:08] So, you know, he'd have his Monday morning press conferences.
[48:10] He was the first one to ever do that.
[48:12] And then basically would set the agenda for the whole week.
[48:14] And to feel like for an irrelevant football club that you now have a voice and it was done through the coach was really important.
[48:24] And so he was able to raise and get us from probably being, you know, somewhat amateurs to the professionals.
[48:30] And it didn't happen straight away.
[48:32] You know, 99, we had some immediate success.
[48:35] Yeah.
[48:36] But, you know, it was a couple of years later before we were actually obviously get the win and there were some significant moments in that journey itself.
[48:41] But he had a huge say as well as many others.
[48:44] But he certainly had a big say on the direction of that football club.
[48:48] That first premiership.
[48:50] I was working at Channel 7 on a show called Sports World, hosted by Joanna Griggs.
[48:55] And at the time, whether it was Dermot or Paul Salmon, we had a Sunday morning show.
[49:00] And I sort of got into the reporting side of things and I'd get sent out all around the place to do stories with a cameraman called Laz Tulecki, the great Laszlo.
[49:09] It was the first time I'd worked in the media on an AFL grand final, your grand final, and I couldn't believe it because...
[49:17] we run out into the middle with a sound recordist, myself and Laz, as you were delivering the final address to the team.
[49:24] And I can still remember it clearly.
[49:26] So I'm five metres away from the final address, looking around the MCG thinking, I can't believe I'm out here, thinking –
[49:36] you're going back to your dad now.
[49:38] This is going to be some big inspirational, we're doing it, this is the forging in the fire of this football club.
[49:46] And I thought, you know, Vossi's going to deliver something inspirational.
[49:49] So we had a microphone there.
[49:51] We couldn't use any of it because you basically dropped 19 F-bombs in 23 words and that was it.
[49:58] And I was like, oh, it's no different than going to watch Taralgon play.
[50:02] And that hit me.
[50:03] It was just all...
[50:05] Fs and let's do it.
[50:06] Yeah.
[50:07] It really is no different.
[50:08] If I go to local community clubs and I see them run out through the banner and they do their sort of little lap and then they start calling run backwards and they start talking about, come on, boys, let's do this, let's owe them one.
[50:22] We owe these blokes one.
[50:23] It's the exact same conversation that happens and that's –
[50:26] That's, I think, the great thing about what we love about sport, isn't it?
[50:29] It is, yeah.
[50:29] From whether you're 12 years of age or whether you're a professional, they're still the same things that you're trying to create, if anything.
[50:36] I would say a lot of AFL clubs now are trying to recreate that community feel within their own football clubs to be able to feel like you can have your sheds and go back and have your awards because it becomes so professional that you've got all these night games and you've got umpires that are off doing that.
[50:53] Yeah.
[50:55] Where are those moments where we come together?
[50:57] And that's what you used to do.
[50:58] It was two teams would come together.
[51:00] You have your social engagement.
[51:01] The umpires would come along at the same time.
[51:04] That was still true until I think certainly in Brisbane.
[51:07] That was still true until probably about 1995, 1996.
[51:10] So you still have a beer with the oppo?
[51:12] Yeah, absolutely.
[51:12] Upstairs in the social rooms upstairs.
[51:14] And then when that got pulled down, it changed.
[51:17] Channel 10 came along.
[51:18] We started playing Saturday nights, Saturday night football, and it sort of started to change from there.
[51:22] But if anything in football clubs, you're still trying to recreate that community feel that you have in every single team that plays right across the world in many ways.
[51:32] So you're taking on Essendon.
[51:33] Let's have a look at the final stage of this.
[51:37] One of three grand finals.
[51:39] It's the Brisbane Lions taking on the Essendon Football Club.
[51:42] These are the closing stages.
[51:45] Brisbane are up by 20 points.
[51:46] Barnes and McDonald and Bonnard out of the air.
[51:48] Still McDonald to Voss in the pocket.
[51:50] Voss close.
[51:50] He's done it.
[51:51] Has he?
[51:52] The captain.
[51:54] He's finished it off.
[51:56] Does it make you smile?
[52:01] It doesn't look like I'm enjoying myself there, though, does it?
[52:03] You're still pretty serious.
[52:04] Now you're 26 points up, but I guess you're never home till you're home.
[52:08] There's shots of South Bank.
[52:10] The MCG is packed.
[52:13] Yeah, and I think the biggest task here, even though that goal was kicked, because we were peppering the goals and we'd missed a few shots on goal, so obviously that particular situation went through, but there was still enough time on the clock, and I guess as sort of leader –
[52:29] was while we're sort of showing that joy, I was more intent on making sure that we're all still locked in on the job.
[52:35] We need to be able to get done and not get lost in the moment.
[52:38] Everything was about being able to get ourselves to that point in time.
[52:41] And so to stay totally present to that and not drift
[52:45] into what might happen next was our biggest challenge.
[52:48] And I always sort of felt like if I ever found myself in a situation on grand final day where it was neck and neck, where would my mind drift to?
[52:55] Would it actually drift to the end?
[52:57] Or could I actually just stay totally present to the moment?
[53:00] I think- How'd you go?
[53:01] I think I handled it okay.
[53:03] I mean, that was obviously a little celebration there, even though I've sort of got my face screwed up.
[53:06] Yeah.
[53:08] An acknowledgement that, hey, that's a big moment.
[53:11] But then you see what I do next and I just lock straight back into, okay, we're not done here.
[53:18] Let's keep pushing this.
[53:20] But what a memorable moment to be able to experience and there's not a possible way you could describe that to any person
[53:30] to be able to win on Grand Final Day, have those flood of emotions that all come back in just that, when that siren sounds, it's really difficult to explain.
[53:37] So how did you do it three times?
[53:40] To this day, so after that, when we won, we had the cup presentation.
[53:46] We had the photos you do when you sit on the ground and we went over to the sideline and...
[53:52] And at that particular time, sort of most teams ran, they actually did the lap running.
[53:57] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[53:58] And I actually ran over.
[53:59] I think Marcus Ashkoff had the cup at the time and I ran over to him and I said, mate, stop.
[54:04] Let's walk and enjoy this and just take in what everyone's sort of feeling because we'll never be back here ever again.
[54:11] That's the captain leaving from the front.
[54:15] So we stopped and we looked at Fitzroy supporters who were crying and we got to see family as we went around and we got to see our partners and got to see our parents, we got to see our friends.
[54:26] And I think since that point in time, most teams, they'd take as long as they possibly can to embrace that moment because don't rush through that.
[54:35] You spend so long being on the grass waiting for that particular moment.
[54:39] Why would you rush to get off?
[54:42] So, but what I didn't think would happen is obviously being in the same circumstance, you know, the next two years in a row.
[54:50] You talked about Fitzroy and I still know guys.
[54:55] I think their heart and girls, their heart's broken that they lost their football club in Fitzroy.
[54:59] I think Brisbane, to their credit, when they wear the Fitzroy jumper and they've always gone back to Brunswick Street over when they've had success, like the football club's done an amazing job celebrating its heritage.
[55:10] In those three years, is there any particular personal memory or just general feeling of someone from old Fitzroy coming up to you saying,
[55:18] Skipper, it means this to me and my family.
[55:20] Bulldog Murray.
[55:22] Right.
[55:22] Yeah.
[55:23] No, he would walk around proudly.
[55:24] So a Brownlow medalist.
[55:25] Walk around proudly with his jumper on.
[55:27] He'd carry his Brownlow medal with him around with his chain.
[55:31] Yeah.
[55:33] And, you know, he was one of the really important symbols, I think, was in this unification of two teams coming together.
[55:41] could have been done as well if he wasn't on board with it.
[55:44] So for him to be able to sort of rise above that and sort of acknowledge that there was something else really important, that was actually important for us as players that he believed in that.
[55:55] And you'd see him at every function.
[55:57] he'd come to all those Brunswick Oval events, he'd be out the front whipping the crowd into a frenzy because I absolutely loved him.
[56:05] And to be honest with you, I think we sort of all really appreciated that he was able to do that and put maybe some personal things that he was feeling about losing his football club and putting it into something and investing in something bigger than himself.
[56:18] And that probably speaks to the man, doesn't it?
[56:21] Yeah, there's a book of all the Brownlow medalists and a photo of him with his Fitzroy jumper on and his Brownlow around the neck and he's got the old school sort of painters and dockers tattoos and he's just... Quick guessing game, indulge me.
[56:35] So if I had said to people, 10 people this week, Vossi's coming for the podcast, what's your one football memory of him?
[56:44] What do you think 90% of them said?
[56:50] I couldn't – this is on field or off field?
[56:52] On field.
[56:53] Okay, because it might be some different off field ones.
[56:55] No, these aren't blokes you've played with.
[56:58] Oh, I think the main one would come up would be maybe the Scotty Burns.
[57:03] Roll the video tape.
[57:04] Roll the video tape because this is peak Michael Voss.
[57:08] The next year's grand final against Collingwood.
[57:10] It is Brisbane taking on Collingwood.
[57:12] Brisbane are going for two in a row.
[57:13] Let's have a look at it, Tommy.
[57:14] The player still got the ball out to Johnson.
[57:16] Johnson on the left boot with a dicky, dippy little kick.
[57:19] It went nowhere.
[57:20] Burns and Voss bounced off each other.
[57:22] Two of the hardest nuts on the ground.
[57:24] Voss picked it up.
[57:25] Gave it to the Brownlow medalist and black.
[57:27] And black goal.
[57:28] That is his goal.
[57:29] Voss goes up to Burns.
[57:32] Gets him right in the nose.
[57:34] And says, cop that under.
[57:35] best player in the league.
[57:37] He is clearly that was the most selfless passage of play you called it, I think one of the you guys commentated.
[57:44] That's Brian and Derm on Triple M football that will be you must have seen it a million times to me that's peak Michael Voss I guess you don't have time to think about what's actually happening at the moment but that's a defining moment in that grand final
[58:02] It is.
[58:02] And I think if you were to, I'd need another podcast to explain everything that moment, you know, all the lessons I learned before that moment, because all I'll say is that what I was taught very much from Lee was, as the captain, you do not lie down.
[58:18] You get up and you don't show that you're hurt.
[58:22] Yeah.
[58:23] The background in that as well is that Scotty Burns had actually was doing a great job for his own team in being physically present.
[58:31] He'd taken out Brownie early in the game.
[58:33] And so the fight was on.
[58:35] And so there's all these sort of like really emotional wins you have in the fight.
[58:40] So I sort of certainly felt like in that moment that if I stayed down, that would have been one little emotional victory, one little battle they would have won.
[58:48] I can't explain how I responded.
[58:51] That is instinct.
[58:53] But I now look back at it and think,
[58:56] God, what did I respond like that for?
[58:58] What was the competitor in me that made me go do that?
[59:02] But then you see your teammates come over and you think, wow, you've actually influenced something here.
[59:07] Absolutely.
[59:08] And it wasn't deliberate.
[59:09] I can honestly say it wasn't deliberate.
[59:11] I've got great admiration for Scotty Burns as a competitor, incredible admiration for what he was for their football team.
[59:17] Yeah.
[59:17] But it did something for us as well, and that's what I love about sport because there's all these moments that happen right throughout sport, and we only get to reflect in these moments after the fact, not before the fact.
[59:29] The second defining moment is the Ackermannis goal, which, Tommy, we need to have a look at this as well.
[59:34] You know, Lee spoke about it, about the coaches saying you need to be front and centre, and the game's tight.
[59:40] It's the old Channel 10, so it's red time, so the clock's going up.
[59:43] Let's have a look at the Ackermannis goal, Tommy.
[59:45] up, he's bowled over, back to Brad Scott, around the corner, to the full forward area, Lynch can't manufacture a mark, Ackermanis, left foot snap, Ackermanis has Kitts, a goal!
[59:59] What a snap!
[1:00:05] Two things from that, by G's a good footballer and two by G's, Stephen Quartermann is a fantastic football commentator.
[1:00:10] Okay, if you were coaching Acker...
[1:00:13] How would you have handled him?
[1:00:15] Because he, I love the bums on seats players and that's what he was and he provided so much for that football club.
[1:00:20] Obviously, things got a little bit tangled at some point.
[1:00:23] How would you have coached him?
[1:00:24] I think exactly how Lee handled it.
[1:00:28] So I think what Lee did amazingly well was brings people's strengths to the table.
[1:00:34] But the one thing I think Lee did exceptionally well was highlight to everybody at the table, whoever had a problem of something that came up with Jason, which was often, was like, he makes you better and he makes you better and he makes you better.
[1:00:46] You go do your thing on the inside, he'll do his thing on the outside and we better because of it.
[1:00:51] Yeah.
[1:00:52] The one thing you couldn't question with Acker was he was really professional in preparation, always sort of seek the edge, and he was an extremely skillful player.
[1:01:01] But he also used to talk about the consultant as well and that he's part of our team, but he's not necessarily fully immersed in the team because he just does things for himself.
[1:01:12] And that actually helped us.
[1:01:13] It actually helped placate the masses.
[1:01:15] It helped...
[1:01:16] placate the balls at the door that were scratching at Lee's door.
[1:01:19] And I felt like Lee was fantastic for him, embraced his strengths, understood there was real difference.
[1:01:25] And in some ways helped us understand that, you know, not everyone has to be fit in a box.
[1:01:30] We can be different.
[1:01:31] We can bring different things to the table.
[1:01:33] but they've got to make sure they improve us, not take away from us.
[1:01:36] And, you know, Acker was certainly bringing those things.
[1:01:38] Why it fell apart in the end, because those things were starting to pull away from us and started to create some dysfunction in the team.
[1:01:45] How'd you handle that as Skipper?
[1:01:47] It was tough because you're sort of the middleman at that time between, effectively, Lee and Acker, because they were having some real conflict in the way they saw things and what the direction the team was looking like.
[1:01:59] Yeah.
[1:02:00] The coach wins in that every single time.
[1:02:03] Every single time.
[1:02:04] And on there is the captain to be part of that message for him.
[1:02:08] But at the same time, trying to acknowledge we need to be able to maximize the skills that we have with this guy.
[1:02:14] But it was just a dynamic that worked until it didn't.
[1:02:17] And then it had to go in a different direction.
[1:02:19] Was Craig McRae, who's so...
[1:02:21] measured and beautifully spoken or emotionally connected in his press conference with his players.
[1:02:25] Was he as good at organising Mad Mondays as everyone said?
[1:02:29] No, he was better than what most people actually – Was he?
[1:02:31] He was that good?
[1:02:32] What was so a little bit about him?
[1:02:34] Oh, we talk about Mad Mondays from round five.
[1:02:37] That's confidence.
[1:02:38] From a bloke that said we'll never be here again to round five the next year.
[1:02:42] No, well, sometimes it was a wake and sometimes it was success.
[1:02:46] But no, he was very good at organising and, of course,
[1:02:50] It's changed a hell of a lot.
[1:02:51] But, yeah, I think even Fly would say he's changed in his ways compared to what he used to be.
[1:02:55] But we used to have so much fun.
[1:02:57] That's the end of Michael Voss Part A.
[1:03:00] In Part B, what happened at Carlton, chasing crooks, and what is next for Vossi.

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