Carlton coach Michael Voss says Blues have learnt from their preliminary final loss to Brisbane

Carlton coach Michael Voss says the Blues must “replicate” the consistency of the Brisbane Lions to give themselves a better chance of winning the AFL premiership.

Beaten by the Lions in last year’s preliminary final at the Gabba, the Blues can exact some revenge on Brisbane in Friday night’s “Opening Round” battle at the same venue.

However, regardless of the result, Voss has called for Carlton to be more consistent throughout the home-and-away season.

The Blues finished fifth on the ladder last year with 13 wins, nine losses and a draw.

The Lions placed second on the table with 17 wins and six defeats, while minor premiers Collingwood – who also went on to win the flag by beating Brisbane in the grand final – won 18 games and lost only five during the regular season.

“We took a fair leaf out of the two grand final teams,” Voss said on Thursday.

“They’ve had four or five years we’re they’ve been up and around the mark and had their own experiences at the back end of the season.

“The one thing they’ve been is a really consistent home-and-away side, so they’ve given themselves the opportunity to put them in strong positions at the end of the season.

“That’s something we haven’t been able to replicate over a period of time. “That’s about consistency. It’s not just about one round, it’s about how we roll that out for 23 (rounds)

“This is only our start. Sometimes we make such a big deal the first game. You feel like there are no other games that exist on the calendar.”

Not that Lions legend Voss was playing down the importance of Friday night’s match in terms of what “Opening Round” meant to the competition in further exposing the sport to people in Queensland and NSW.

“I understand the challenges we’ve got up in the northern states, and that’s been a battle I’ve lived since I was 11 years of age,” said Voss, who captained the Lions to a hat-trick of premierships from 2001 to 2003.

“I understand the reach we need to be able to have. The participants are growing, the interest in the game’s growing and has been steadily for such a long period of time.“If we’ve got a role to play in that, then we’ll play it, but we’ll also be happy to get back to Melbourne and play out our season from there as well.”

Voss said the Blues had ‘dealt” with their 16-point preliminary final loss, which stung even more because Carlton kicked the first five goals of the match before Brisbane fought back.

However, he said it was a good learning experience for his team.

“To see that atmosphere and play in a preliminary final, it’s going to be a huge experience for us, so we’ll lean on that,” Voss said.

“The challenge is now how do we replicate (the start) and how do we do that for a longer period of time in really big-game-like football.”