Here it is:
Brisbane Lions coach Michael Voss terminated with the Lions already speaking to Paul Roosby: Jon Ralph, Greg Davis
From: The Courier-Mail August 14, 2013 12:00AM
PAUL Roos has confirmed he had spoken to Brisbane about their coaching position a month ago, as Michael Voss was left reeling from his sudden sacking.
Club legend Voss was sensationally terminated by the Lions, just hours after speaking optimistically about the club's finals chances.
But while Roos has already been linked to the vacant role, he told the Herald Sun he had made no commitment to the Lions.
He was called by Brisbane chief executive Malcolm Holmes last month but told him he felt uneasy about talking to any club that had a coach in place.
In an extraordinary development, Holmes told Roos that Voss was aware that he was being approached, despite hoping to win another contract. Just as with Melbourne's coaching position, Roos is refusing to rule out further discussions while at the same time saying he is unlikely to coach again.
"Malcolm Holmes rang me a month ago and said Michael (Voss) knows about the phone call, and I reiterated what I had spoken about to Peter (Jackson, the Demons CEO),'' he said.
"I am happy to talk to Peter on a regular basis because they don't have a coach but I said I felt very uncomfortable talking to Brisbane. In terms of contracts, there is no contract and nothing like that at all. But it is the same discussion I have had with Melbourne. Unless something changes.
"They assured me that Vossy knew they were calling me. They said it was a discussion Michael knew about.''
With Voss winning five of the last eight games for eight wins in 2013 - with contests against GWS and the Western Bulldogs to come - he appeared blindsided by the decision.
But Lynch, connected with Voss through management firm Velocity, said he suspected his former teammate was in trouble.
"I have heard around Brisbane in the last couple of weeks Michael wasn't going to be re-signed, but this has come out of the blue for Vossy.''
Senior assistant Mark Harvey will become the caretaker coach for the last three rounds, and would be the only other contender for the full-time role.
Voss declined an offer to coach out the last three weeks of the season.
The sacking immediately opened the door for Sydney premiership coach Roos to return to his Lions roots - he played 267 games with Fitzroy before moving to the Swans.
Voss told Channel Seven last night he was shocked to be sacked.
"I don't know how I feel; tomorrow I will wake up and don't go to work and that's all I know,'' he said.
"I've loved (the Lions) more than anything else, and the club is dear to me... I have gone in every day and (attempted) there has been something to improve in our players. That is what I will miss the most.''
Voss took the Lions to the finals as recently as 2010, where they beat Carlton at the Gabba, but he would win only 43 of his 109 games in charge.
Ultimately, his legacy will be tainted by the decision to recruit Carlton's Brendan Fevola on a massive deal.
It was regarded as the worst trade in history, with Fevola soon gone, Lachie Henderson off-loaded, and disgruntled stars Daniel Bradshaw and Michael Rischitelli leaving amid the fallout.
Brisbane chairman Angus Johnson was booed and heckled by sections of the crowd at a Lions function when he announced the sacking.
One guest at the Lions gala auction night at the Brisbane Convention Centre yelled out "sack the board'' during Johnson's statement at the start of the function.
Former Brisbane coach Robert Walls said it was an "absolute shock'' that Voss had been sacked, immediately linking him to the vacant Melbourne job.
He suggested on SEN Radio that Leigh Matthews might return to Brisbane for one final coaching hurrah.
But the four-time premiership coach told the The Courier-Mail only last month the coaching fire had been extinguished.
"That's what I did for my whole life; when you are in it, you live it,'' he said. "It is not a job - it is a lifestyle, an obsession and an addiction. I regard it that way and I'm not going to do that again."
Former teammate Chris Johnson said he was "very shocked" by Voss’s sacking.
"I thought 'Vossy' had done enough in this back end of the year with some of the results going the Lions' way," he told 3AW on Tuesday night.
"Obviously in the front end of the year things weren't looking great for him, but I thought he'd done a fair bit of work with the playing group to get them up to be somewhat competitive at the end of the year...
"He's had the players on-side the whole time he's been coaching the Lions, but it has (a lot) to do with the actual list he has too. (It) hasn’t been a great list, and I thought Michael has done a fantastic job to get out (of it) what he has."
- with Warwick Green
http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/brisbane-lions-coach-michael-voss-will-not-be-given-a-new-contract/story-fndv8d6r-1226696515172
