‘He’ll be at Carlton’: Voss says Blues won’t listen to offers for Curnow

2 weeks ago 9

Carlton coach Michael Voss has declared that star forward Charlie Curnow will be staying at the club in 2026, saying the Blues will not even listen to any offers for the star forward.

Curnow told the Blues in last week’s exit meeting he was open to the possibility of leaving the club, despite having four years to run on a lucrative contract that expires after the 2029 season.

The match-winning forward had a difficult 2025 season, impacted by injury and the Blues’ poor form, as the club missed finals after two seasons back in September.

Voss told SEN on Monday that the Blues would not even listen to any offers for a man critical to the Blues’ hopes of emerging from what the coach said was a “reset” after a tough year that has culminated in major change in the football department and playing list.

“No,” Voss said when asked about listening to potential offers.

“Our position is pretty clear. It’s been stated – I don’t even know publicly whether we’ve said anything – but he’ll be at Carlton in 2026.

“Those discussions – if there are any others – we’ll continue to have behind closed doors. He’s a two-time Coleman medallist, it could have been three, who has four years to run on a contract. We feel like he’s an incredibly important person to us.

“He’ll figure for us moving forward and, hopefully, he’s playing out the rest of his career here.”

But he confirmed Curnow had raised the possibility of a fresh start elsewhere.

“‘Open’ was more the language used,” Voss said.

“Obviously, from our position it was pretty clear, so we don’t feel like we’re in that position to want to go down that path.

“That position was well and truly communicated back to him and then from that point on we moved on to other topics, and talked about his year and how we can make him better and get back to that striking form he had only 12 months ago.”

Curnow, the Blues’ co-vice-captain, battled a series of injuries this season, including two pre-season surgeries on his ankle and knee, and another surgery on his knee late in the year which shut down his campaign with four games remaining.

A dual Coleman Medal winner, Curnow was restricted to 32 goals. He has been linked to Geelong, Gold Coast and Sydney – if he were to move.

Ken Hinkley and Michael Voss could yet re-unite at Carlton next season.

“I don’t think it’s worthy of going into detail outside of that we’ve had a tough year, and he’s had a challenging year,” Voss said.

“If you look at the year he’s had, we can sort of wash over it pretty quick and just look at what happened towards the end. He’s obviously had three surgeries over the course of this year, the first one happening in round 17 last year, had ankle surgery and couldn’t get going pre-Christmas.

“Then he had to have his knee [surgery] and that restricted his post-Christmas period as well. Came back on some good prep, not great prep … and he ended up playing 18 games but, obviously, never hit the highs that we would have loved.

“In some ways, he was starting to get going, and then he got hurt again. It’s just been a tough year, and we’ve all felt that. We’re all pretty determined to change that.”

Voss said forward Elijah Hollands, 23, had been told to explore his options elsewhere, but he could yet return to the Blues as he is contracted for next season. Voss said the Blues were disappointed after the former Sun and brother of fellow Blue Ollie had enjoyed a strong 2024 season.

The Blues are searching for a new football department boss to replace Brad Lloyd, and have expressed interest in respected Port Adelaide boss Chris Davies.

Voss said the Blues would be keen to have former Power coach Ken Hinkley come on board in a senior football department role. Hinkley has been a long-time mentor for Voss – the pair having worked together at Alberton – but Hinkley may opt to have a break from football in 2026.