No fuss, no demons as Docherty eyes Gabba return

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No fuss, no demons as Docherty eyes Gabba return

Michael Voss has learnt one thing since being reunited with Sam Docherty.

“Just don’t stand in his way,” the Carlton coach said.

So when the Blues veteran, originally drafted by Brisbane when Voss was Lions coach in 2011, said he was eyeing a return this year from a round one anterior cruciate ligament tear, Voss didn’t blink.

Docherty will run onto the Gabba on Saturday for an elimination final against his old team less than six months after suffering the injury on the same ground.

Most athletes take closer to 12 months to return from the same setback.

“It’s amazing, but he’s walking around going, ‘What’s the big deal?’,” Voss said on Friday in Brisbane.

“(He’s) about the only bloke out of all of us (saying), ‘Let’s just get on with it’.

“We’re not just operating off one session here, we’ve got this body of work.”

Voss doesn’t expect the 30-year-old, who has twice recovered from testicular *******, to be daunted by the prospect of his return coming at the scene of his injury.

“He’s going in extremely confident, he’s incredible with his resilience. Nothing shocks me with Doc,” Voss said.

“I was coach at Brisbane when we drafted him … now I’ve had a lot more to do with him (at Carlton); he’s an incredible human being.”

Docherty is one of six men returning from injury but key forward Charlie Curnow (ankle) isn’t one of them, even though he’s made the trip north with the side.

“He texted me this morning, let me know he was OK and fit to play,” Voss said of Curnow.

“But we’ve decided not to.

“He’s had some good valuable training this week.

“Really hopeful that next week he’ll be right to go.”

The Blues will need to win of course, like they did in round one after trailing by 46 points.

Voss’s side limped into the finals with two wins from their last eight games, a gutting final-round loss to St Kilda leaving them relying on a Fremantle loss to claim eighth place.

“If home and away is about consistency, then finals is about capacity,” Voss said.

“We’d like a better starting point on the grid, but this is where we found ourselves (and) we’ve got a few weapons ourselves.”

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