Postecoglou's message touches Blues AFL coach Voss after Spurs' Europa League win
Carlton coach Michael Voss could not help but smile when he saw Ange Postecoglou's name pop up on his phone.
He had not expected the trailblazing Tottenham Hotspur manager — and Carlton supporter — to reply to his text message of congratulations for his Europa League final triumph on Thursday AEST.
Postecoglou's Spurs defeated Manchester United 1-0 in the final in Bilbao, giving the North London club its first trophy in 17 years.
"I wasn't expecting a reply, but such is the man, he (Postecoglou) replied," Voss said.
"Short and succinct and the last message was 'Always watching', which was a nice little message at the end."
Postecoglou has long-standing links to Carlton, including being a part of the selection panel that chose Brendon Bolton as coach in 2015.
Voss spent time at Spurs over the off-season, working with Postecoglou as part of a personal development trip.
He relished Postecoglou's "special" triumph.
"He's (Postecoglou) very forthright in his views and I think some people have called him stubborn at times," Voss said.
"But I just see a coach that really believes in what he thinks is the right way to do it, and he's proven that over time.
"I will just say that probably the message is not so much what he told me, but what I get out of it was, it's about persistence and modelling the right things, and you've got to believe, keep getting after it.
"It really doesn't matter what other people say. It's more about what we think and what we believe."
Voss said he hoped to draw on some of the adversity and pressure Postecoglou had overcome.
"Watching another coach go about their business and how they're able to do that, it probably does put into context the enormity of the job," Voss said ahead of the Blues' clash with GWS at Docklands on Saturday.
"And the level of persistence it takes to be able to obviously experience the ultimate.
"If anything, you walk away, you're almost doubling down on the things you think are right. And that holds you in good stead.
"Maybe there's a little bit of a lesson in that for us right now."
The Blues are 12th on the ladder, four points adrift of the eighth-placed Giants.
AAP
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