Antoni Grover - Fremantle Dockers LEGEND (22.07.2026)

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**Mark Duffield** (0:55)
Welcome back to the SENWA studio out here at Optus Stadium. 14.7 degrees at the moment. This is Duff and The Doctor thanks to Blackline, BLAK Line, Aboriginal owned business, delivering signage, print, promotional products and creative services with cultural integrity and impact. Our next guest played 202 mighty games for the Fremantle Dockers. He was an undersized key defender. He was not a man to be trifled with. Antoni Grover joins us. Antoni, welcome.

**Antoni Grover** (1:27)
Good day, Duff. Thanks for having me on. Duff and The Doctor, I like it.

**Mark Duffield** (1:30)
Duff and The Doctor. Can you believe he's a Doctor, Groves?
I'm sceptical of myself.

**Dr. Gorman** (1:35)
Not that kind of Doctor, Groves.

**Antoni Grover** (1:36)
You know that, though.

**Mark Duffield** (1:37)
Come on now.

**Antoni Grover** (1:38)
Self-proclaimed A title, is it? No, no, no. That's the terrific work behind the scenes.

**Mark Duffield** (1:44)
Now, Antoni, I was looking you up on LinkedIn today. You are the executive manager of Combat Sports. What does that entail?

**Antoni Grover** (1:52)
Oh, okay, yeah. I'm so currently employed to a government department and work with the Combat Sports Commission. So essentially it's a regulation of boxing, MMA, Muay Thai. Events are put on for profit. Think the Danny Green days and the UFC and the likes of. They're the big sort of ticket events, but then there's a lot of local events that we regulate as well.

**Mark Duffield** (2:13)
Obviously we've got the Western Derby coming up this weekend. What's your favorite Derby memory?

**Antoni Grover** (2:21)
It's an interesting one, mate. I mean, all the wins that we had at times and just running out there in front of the crowd. But for me, I have a personal moment for me, and that was my grandmother passed away, and I was drafted when I was living with her. And the morning of a Derby, she passed away, and I went out there, and Robert Warnock actually handballed me the ball at about 55, and I drilled a goal outside of 50, the first goal of the game, and ran down the wing, kissing my black armband, point to the sky, mate. So I'm proud to share that story. It's certainly something that sits very close to my heart.
At the time, she was a big influence on my career. Yeah.

**Dr. Gorman** (3:01)
Fantastic, fantastic story there, Groves. In terms of that, the motivator, obviously the grandmother piece, and how personalized that is for you, and how powerful it is, is getting you motivated to do things. We're seeing the numbers in the AFL at the moment dropping and dropping significantly. We're seeing Bobby Hill, Tyson Stengel, Jamara Yougill, Hagen, also potentially on the cusp of exiting the game.
What are your thoughts around what needs to happen having played those 202 odd games for Freo? What do you think needs to be done to rectify that bleed, mate?

**Antoni Grover** (3:39)
Oh, it's a big question, isn't it? I mean, firstly, I was very lucky to walk into an environment where, you know, I had people, you know, individuals that I directly looked up to, you know, in Dahlkicker and Troy Cook and Jeff Farmer were pretty quick at the club, certainly built really close relationships with them over the journey. You know, and like from, I guess, talking from a female perspective, too, it's had such a rich heritage of Aboriginal players through the years and still have Roger Hayden involved at the club and knowing intimately what he does at the club. I think that's really important to have not only mentors, but people that can guide young Aboriginal men and women through their careers. Look, it's not great to see what's happening with Tyson and Bobby.
Certainly, from my experience, I think Fremantle had some good strategies in place to support young men and women coming through. But certainly, there's a bigger picture there from an AFL perspective about when we're talking about having programs and development programs and so on, and making sure they're organized at a high level to educate young boys and girls that are coming through the system or and give them a bit of an insight to what actually is required at AFL level, because it's only getting harder. There's no doubt about that. The demands, the media scrutiny and also the social media scrutiny is increasing. Yeah.