AFL News Update with Will Faulkner - Fox Footy (22.09.2026)

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

There is so much NFL on ESPN right now.

Monday Night Football, plus pre-game and post-game. NFL Live, NFL Primetime. Everything you need to stay on top of every game, every week.

Mark Duffield (0:14)

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_1 (0:16)

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Andy Richter (0:30)

Hi, I'm Andy Richter. I might not have won the Mirror Ball last season.

Will Faulkner (0:34)

That was so fun.

Andy Richter (0:35)

But I did win the best gig ever. Hosting the Dancing with the Stars official podcast.

Get ready for all the inside scoop from the cast. All right, well, let's get to work. Behind the scenes secrets and more from every episode.

SPEAKER_1 (0:47)

That was smoldering.

Andy Richter (0:49)

It's going to be iconic.

SPEAKER_1 (0:51)

All my dreams are coming true.

Andy Richter (0:52)

Dancing with the Stars official podcast. New episodes every Thursday on Disney Plus and Hulu, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Mark Duffield (1:03)

I will choose free will. And we have chosen free will today. Will Faulkner from Fox Footy joins us on the line to start our second hour in the show. Will, welcome.

Will Faulkner (1:16)

Thank you for having me, Duff.

Mark Duffield (1:17)

Were you an invitee to the Brownlow Gala function last night, mate?

Will Faulkner (1:22)

No, no, no, I wasn't. No, I just watched from afar last night, but I think we all saw where that was going in the end. So, yeah, no, it was good to see Dittacoss get up. And yeah, it's been an incredible run. He's been on the last few years.

Mark Duffield (1:36)

It was, but it felt inevitable at the start of the night. And then there was a little bit of a doubt when Zach Butters and Bontempelli and Bailey Smith kept pace with him early. But once he bolted clear, it was decided pretty quickly.

Will Faulkner (1:51)

Yes. Yeah. No, I think there's a little bit of interest, as you said, in those opening rounds. I think we all knew how well he was going to poll from round 17 onwards, which is not an absolute tear. So from there, it made it pretty hard for those guys to catch up. And obviously, you know, Butters polled really well at the start, but had an injury at the interrupted end to his season. And Bontempelli probably had a few games where he wasn't going to poll. So it was inevitable. But I guess it probably kept a little bit more interest in the opening half of the count.

Mark Duffield (2:17)

Didn't seem to be a lot of footage on Channel 7's coverage of the Sydney Swans table. Do you think that was deliberate or an accident?

Will Faulkner (2:26)

There's probably a few, yeah, insinuating that it was probably intentional. But I probably can't speak too much on their behalf. But it was definitely noticeable, I think just in comparison to maybe how a few of the other tables were getting publicity, but awesome coverage. But yeah, probably too hard to say definitively, I think.

Mark Duffield (2:44)

Now, the story tonight, of course, is going to be the Lockie Neal Tribunal hearing. How do you expect this to play out? What will Brisbane use to try and get the Lockie off for the Grand Final?

Will Faulkner (2:56)

Yeah, so I think the first one is probably that everyone's speaking about, which I think will end up being the default in the end, is exceptional and compelling circumstances. So Neal has played 328 other games and has never been suspended. Now, we've seen his teammate Charlie Cameron get off with 100 less games to his name back in 2024

And then at the other end of the spectrum, Penderbury, who had played just over 100 more games as my A-add, Neal was got off for a charge earlier this year for a bump on Josh Worrell in round one under that same caveat. I think first and foremost, I'll probably try and plead that the contact wasn't hard enough, that it was low impact.

That might be a little bit hard to argue, I think, given the fact that he didn't even fell to the ground. The footage is a really interesting one. I think that's a point of contention that Barisan might also try and argue, just the fact that the angle isn't definitive enough to say that he did strike with force and that, you know, from the view and how far away the cameras are, that maybe it looks worse than what it actually was. But I think the general consensus there is probably that won't fly, which is where they'll then default to, hey, Lockie Neal is a dual-bramble medalist, he's a great of our game, he's never been suspended in 320 games. We don't think that it's fair that he is suspended for a grand final. Now, I don't expect the AFL to take the fact it's a grand final into too much account officially, but, you know, whether or not that ends up having an impact on the decision remains to be made, but it's going to be fascinating. I think a lot of people are torn as to whether or not he will end up getting off or whether he'll end up being that charge to be upheld.