Joe Brierty | Fremantle Executive GM of Football (22.07.2026)

**Joe Brierty** (0:00)
Introducing Meta Glasses. You have questions, they've got answers.
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**Mark Duffield** (0:08)
Lima.

**Joe Brierty** (0:09)
How do you say, where's the restroom in Spanish?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:12)
Dónde está el baño?

**Joe Brierty** (0:14)
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**Mark Duffield** (0:17)
Technically, no.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:18)
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**Joe Brierty** (0:25)
What do you think?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:27)
Ask anything with the new Meta Glasses.
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**Mark Duffield** (1:05)
Welcome back to the SENWA studio. We're out here at Optus Stadium on this Wednesday morning in Perth. Of course, Fremantle gearing up for a massive Western Derby clash against West Coast on Friday night. Their executive general manager of footy, Joe Brierty, joins us on the show now. Joe, welcome.

**Joe Brierty** (1:25)
Morning, Duff. Thanks for having me, mate.

**Mark Duffield** (1:27)
Always a pleasure to have you on, Joe. Mate, Shay Bolton rested last week with that hand injury, training fully yesterday. Is he an absolute lock for the Derby on Friday?

**Joe Brierty** (1:40)
Yeah, yeah, he'll be ready to go, Duff. I'm not sure about the conversations around the hand. His hand's fine, so.

**Mark Duffield** (1:46)
Okay.

**Joe Brierty** (1:47)
Yeah, it was just an opportunity for us to give him a week off with the travel and obviously freshen him up for this weekend. So he trained well yesterday and I'm expecting him to be available.

**Mark Duffield** (2:02)
So are you getting into a bit of player management then, because that's something that you've kind of tried to avoid a little bit, kind of against the chorus of calls from people telling you to rest some players?

**Joe Brierty** (2:16)
Yeah, look, I think it's when we feel that it's requiring different conversations we have with different players and their bodies.
And from a load perspective, I think there's obviously a lot of conversations around forcing our hand to do things at different times to rest a number of players. And we feel as though different players have missed games across the year or are facing continuity in their own footy and ultimately it's what the individual needs. So it was just one where we were obviously working through what Bolts' week looked like. And from a loading perspective, he picked up a little bit of soreness here and there, but there was nothing significant in the end. He could have played, but we felt like it was the right decision for him. So it's something that we'll always monitor and we'll also look at in-game management for certain players if they're returning from injury or if they've had a significant load over a period of time. So it's different requirements to different players at different times.

**Mark Duffield** (3:10)
So six-day break and travel. Would you look at managing anyone in the lead into this Western Derby?

**Joe Brierty** (3:17)
Yeah, again, it's one of those ones that if it pops up and we feel like that's the conversation, then we'll have our performance health team and if it's required. But the majority of the group's pulled up really well. You're always going to have some soreness here and there with travel and short turnarounds, but we'll have those kind of conversations in match committee. But at the moment, everyone's trending pretty well. Unfortunately, Jomi is going to miss this weekend, Jager O'Meara, and with bolts available, then obviously look at the makeup of the rest of the team.

**Mark Duffield** (3:49)
Now, as you mentioned, Jager, his injury, what's the prognosis there? He dodges surgery, but do we yet have a return to play timeline?

**Joe Brierty** (3:59)
Yeah, it's one that the next week becomes pretty important with these syndesmosis because it's ultimately just assessing a bit of the spring and how quickly that can come back from a player's perspective. So you've seen players that are a little bit slower and take a bit longer in that kind of five to six week mark, but Jom seems to have definitely been at the lower end of that. So we'll get a better read next week, but we don't think it's going to be at those types of extremities, it's just going to be how quickly he gets moving in the first couple of weeks, which is a critical timeline. But as it stands, we'll be confident that we'll see him before the end of the home and away season.