The Pressure facing Michael Voss | The Art of Coaching with Ken Hinkley (01.04.26)

our Wednesdays start with the art of coaching with Ken Hinkley, who I will say was utterly brilliant

last night with his Ken's 10 on sports day.

Kenny, welcome morning Jared.

It's another big weekend football as Eddie might say.

Ken's 10 included the post game press conference.

What about the midweek press conference?

Give me the art of the midweek press conference when you're under siege.

Yeah, well, it's a difficult one.

It's a really difficult one because you have to go in and you know, the questions that are coming, you know,

and all the questions are around probably as much when you're in this situation where boss

you finds himself as you, they're all around you and what are you going to do and how are you

going to make a difference and you know, that's a really challenging space to work in in midweek

because you're in the hands of the players a lot.

You're in the, you know, the things that you can control are, you know, selection and bits and

pieces and your preparation, but the press conference today is you've got to, you've got to be the

person who gives the conference to the team, to the club and you've got to stand up in front of

no, we're working on this, we've got this figured out and we, that's a really hard question to,

or an answer to give when your results are saying what they're saying currently, you know,

we've got this figured out is probably hard to believe for the people who are asking those questions.

So Michael got, he's got some challenges today to answer those questions, but more importantly,

he's just got to get to Friday, you know, and that's what he can do and he, he's answers will

be, I imagine, a bit like what Sam was just said, there ain't nothing we can do until we get there

in some ways. No matter what I say to you, we're just going to fall on their fears because

of the hollow responses of the last couple, you know, and, and where we're putting that so

we just need to get to Friday and we need to get there in shape and we need to get there with a mindset

to do whatever it takes. So you say in the post game, you're often talking to the players,

does today carry the same as I, so Michael was really interesting. He, he has been clearly leaning

to the positive and there was a, there was an acknowledgement in his press conference that he was

going to have to dip into the negative this week that the glass half full wasn't quite cutting us.

So that, that has to, yeah, he has to, Jared, he has to go back to the, to the well of demands in

some ways and, and be demanding of his team. That's, that's the challenge because, you know, he's,

he's, he's stuck by them for the first shoe and then, and it hasn't quite worked and the same

results have come. Now, the team are already in the, the space of mentally there, they're a little

fragile based on what their results have been. We get to halftime enough, it's going to be proven

at Calming unfortunately and for them, for the whole group, the club and all until, you know, the

second half on Friday. Yeah, whatever the scoreboard says, it's going to be second half Friday that

everyone tunes into and, and they know that, Michael knows that, everyone involved with CUB would

understand that's where the microscope was going to land and going to go to work and they're

going to look and they're going to look really hard and, you know, you've got to come up with some

plans that make you, we, we want to say more competitive because it, you need to close some

plans that make you look different. I reckon you've got to look different to the way you've lost in

the last couple of the games and, you know, the Richmond game probably should have been a loss,

we called that game Jared, you know, with Tom Lin's kick straight, that's, that's another loss,

which is why the narrative started to really grow. I think everyone knows they've got a, you know,

false win in some ways, they've got to get it properly. I'm, I'm interested in your perception

in your first year on our side of it. So over my time, you sort of develop this idea is there's

the pressure to do the job and there's the pressure to keep the job. That line gets blurred and

far too much of the commentary rushes to the pressure to keep the job is, is he about to get sacked?

That this both Brad Scott and Michael Voss are interesting on that line at the moment. They

still in the pressure to do the job or how fast might this become the unusual dynamic in an AFL

is the first half of the season when the job is on the line. Pressure to do the job pressure to

keep the jobs a great question. I don't think there's any separation between the two. I think it's

just pressure. I think it's absolutely just pressure. It's not because you know pressure to do

the job will ease the pressure to keep the job. If you do the job very well, there is the pressure

to keep the jobs not there because you don't, as a coach when you sit in that seat and I unfortunately

sat there for quite a bit of the last four or five years of my time was to the pressure to keep

the job coming from outside. I think internally you usually are pretty, pretty stoic about what your

job description is and that is to go there and be the person to lead the way to make sure a

vinaus feels like that pressure is not actually real, which it is, but we go there to turn it

out and say it's not real because if we play to our level, they'll leave us alone and that was

the same. I think if you think about acid and last week they've missed a bit of the pressure this

week based on the fact that Calton have been worse. It's only around the corner is what I would say

about pressure. It's only just around the corner. As soon as you turn the next corner, it's probably

waiting for you and if you don't, don't enjoy pressure, which I think that's a bit silly to say too.

I think no one really enjoys too much pressure, but if you're not used to pressure, it's probably the

word I should have went with, used to pressure, it will, it will consume you and it will let you out,

but the reality is if you're used to it, which you tend to be is an AFL coach, there's not many,

there's not many criss-gots in the world who get to go through 14, great years or 15 or 16,

great years at Chris Fagan now going through those moments. There's not many that get to sit in

the no pressure position and I think that's the true part of coaching. So, pressure's there,

it'll be there for Michael and for Brad and for a number of other coaches.

If the pressure consumes you, does it inhibit your capacity to do the job?

Yeah, it will, yeah, absolutely, it will, it will, it will, it will cloud your judgment a little bit,

you know, and I think once or twice maybe over the journey, it does cloud your judgment a little

bit because you just want to, you're just so desperate to get this thing moving in the right

direction that maybe you've missed a crucial call or a crucial moment to make a call and that

is what I think selection gives you.