Joe Brierty | Fremantle Executive GM of Football (29.07.2026)

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Joe Brierty** (0:30)
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**Joe Brierty** (0:34)
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**Joe Brierty** (0:43)
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**Mark Duffield** (0:46)
Welcome back to the SE&WA studio out here at Upto Stadium. A Wednesday morning in Perth, 12.3 degrees outside at the moment, building to a top of 20 later in the day. The Fremantle Dockers take on the Western Bulldogs at Upto Stadium on Friday night. And Joe Brierty, their Executive General Manager of Footy, joins us on the show. Joe, welcome.

**Joe Brierty** (1:09)
Morning.

**Mark Duffield** (1:11)
How are you, mate?

**Joe Brierty** (1:13)
Yeah, no, all going well, all going well. It's obviously been a Friday to Friday game, so we've been over the weekend and still had the fixture on Saturday. So just a normal kind of seven day break, but it's definitely come around quickly and training today. So the final touch is in preparation for what should be a really exciting game against the Bulldogs.

**Mark Duffield** (1:33)
This is a seven day break, but I'm fascinated at the way you've handled your five and six day breaks this year, usually with great aplomb. What has changed at the club do you think that your recovery mechanisms are so much better that you are able to get up and play strongly and finish games strongly off the shorter breaks?

**Joe Brierty** (1:52)
Well, we've been fairly consistent in the way that our week looks going into games. I think that's really helped our players prepare and get down the funnel as we call it, I guess. And whether we've manipulated our structures in five and six day breaks where players might have some extra time off at the front end of the week, but what they get in terms of detail around their programming and the gym and from a football education perspective has allowed us to kind of, if every week really feels the same, whether it's a seven, five or a six day break, which maybe sounds a little bit unusual, but that's been a pretty important piece of the puzzle. And then I guess it's one of those elements of stuff where as the playing group matures, they understand themselves, what they need in their own body and the extra work that they're looking to put in. And there's also a fair amount of trust in giving them the extra time when they might need to focus more on their recovery in a shorter break than they're actually being face to face at the club. So Adam Beards obviously managing that well with JL in terms of how the weekly structure looks. And we'll continue to trust the group. And obviously there's a fair bit of maturity in the way they're handling these breaks themselves.

**Mark Duffield** (3:03)
That's a good sign, isn't it? It shows that they're really invested and they're really prepared to lead themselves, if you like, rather than be led by others towards, hopefully, a good outcome at the end of the season.

**Joe Brierty** (3:16)
Yeah, I think it's the environment they're trying to create as players, working really closely with their individual coaches and understanding aspects of their game where they need to improve week on week and then driving those standards as a playing group. And I think that the availability piece definitely helps with that. So when you've got consistently kind of that 38 to 40 players on the track, it obviously drives out a fair bit of energy and competition for spots. And I think they're all kind of looking at how their game can continue to evolve. And I think that's one for us in the back end of the season where there's been a lot of talk about how you may manage players or what you may look to do. We just feel as though all of our playing group and as a team, we've got so much scope for improvement across our game and as individuals.