VETERAN coach Leigh Matthews has privately advised Michael Voss against jumping into a senior coaching position despite the considerable interest in the recently retired Brisbane Lions champion.
The pair met briefly at the Gabba early yesterday and the veteran four-time premiership coach and AFL legend warned his former charge that he was risking his reputation and could harm his long-term coaching prospects.
And Matthews' view was last night backed by his chairman Tony Kelly who told The Age: "My advice to Michael is to educate himself for a bit longer. I think the best situation for a Michael Voss is that the better base and education he builds for himself then the better base he has for a long-term coaching career."
While Voss has already spoken to Carlton's coaching sub-committee with a view to holding more talks over the coming week, he has now also lined up interviews later this week in Melbourne with the Demons and Essendon.
Fremantle had also contacted Voss via its chief executive Cameron Schwab, but no meeting has been scheduled. He has continually stated he has yet to make up his mind about putting his hand up for next season and appeared no closer to a final decision last night.
There is no doubt though that Voss would at least have taken on board the advice of his long-time coach. He stated over the weekend that he would be seeking counsel from trusted mentors and Matthews is one of those.
Voss' now well-known and outspoken self-belief in his ability to take on a senior job is understood to have surprised Matthews, who last Friday told The Age: "He's a very capable person but he hasn't done the training."
Any suggestion that Brisbane would move to secure Voss with a view to grooming him as a future successor to Matthews was denied last night by club chairman Kelly.
"Assistant coaches are people too, you know, and my understanding is that Leigh is very happy with his. I know it's a romantic view that Michael will come back to coach Brisbane one day but that's all it is — romantic. All our focus in the short and long-term is based around Leigh Matthews."
Yesterday Matthews, who is contracted to coach the Lions until the end of 2008, said he was becoming tired of the Voss question but added on a more positive note: "If anyone can, Vossy can. If anyone can take the pathway that Vossy is at the first of August 2007, Vossy can because he's a most capable person. Above and beyond that, who knows?
"Can I tell you what will be the main thing with Vossy: getting a good group of players to coach. Because that's what separates all the coaches I'll tell you."
When asked what advice he had offered Voss, Matthews responded with an analogy from the 1993 film Tombstone which tells the story of the gunfight at OK Corral: "Go with your gut, go with your gut. I mean Michael's, I use the term … I have this line out of a movie once I saw, that Tombstone movie, the Wyatt Earp movie, and Doc Holliday was talking about Ringo the gunslinger, and Wyatt Earp was saying to Doc: 'What is it about Ringo that he likes killing people?'
"Doc Holliday says he's got this big black hole within him that no amount of pain or killing will fill. Well, many of us are like that with achievement and success and challenge, that there's this black hole that you can't fill.
"Like Sheeds has not filled, because you can never fill it … Vossy's got it, as many competitors have, and therefore the urge for the challenge is something that is clearly within Vossy and clearly within many people, and clearly within Sheeds at 59, 60 years of age, that's what drives us because we can't fill that black hole, but we've got to keep trying."
with ANDREW STAFFORD
