Jonathan Horn - Guardian Australia Sports Columnist (14.07.2026)

**Mark Duffield** (0:00)
So good, so good, so good.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:03)
New summer arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Get ready to save big with up to 60 percent off brands like Rag & Bone, Levi's, Adidas and Free People. Join the Nordy Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite Rack store for free.
Great brands, great prices. That's why you Rack.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:26)
Hey babes, it's Paris Hilton. So I was checking my points balance in the Hilton Honors app the other day. And yeah, I've got about a billion, which feels excessive, even for me. Just kidding. You can never have too many Hilton Honors points. And I want to do something iconic this summer. So I'm giving away all my Paris points. Just find somewhere you've always wanted to stay, then go to my socials or Hilton's and tell me about it. Just make sure you're a Hilton Honors member and I might be sending you Paris points. Because when you want points that make your summer even hotter, it matters where you stay.

**Mark Duffield** (1:03)
Yes, one horny one has been suspended for a higher bump, but the other one joins us on the show now. Jonathon Horn, the sports columnist for the Guardian. Jonathon, welcome.

**Jonathan Horn** (1:14)
Hello, Duff. Good to be on, mate.

**Mark Duffield** (1:16)
Mate, free manel, two games clear plus percentage, six games out from the end of the season. They've lost just twice. And one of those, the Geelong Cats had to come from behind to beat them in round one.
What is the history of clubs this far out in front at this stage of the season?

**Jonathan Horn** (1:38)
It's interesting, Duff, I've been doing a bit of a deep ladder analysis of footing in the last, say, quarter of a century.
And in the last, since the turn of the century, there's been seven teams who have been in a stronger position as Freemantle are right now. Now, obviously, things have changed in terms of the composition of the competition and the teams and added rounds and so on. But there's been seven teams who have been in as good a position as Freo are. Three of those went on to win the flag and three lost, including the Saints of 2009 who were undefeated at this point of the season. And the 2005 Eagles, who at this point of the season, were three games clear of seven. So three of one, three have been runners up. And of those seven Duff, who were the only ones not to make the Grand Finals, the 15 Dockers.

**Mark Duffield** (2:38)
The 2015 Dockers, yeah, interesting. I think, so going back to 2015, I think Freemantle got ready early and were early ripe, early rotten in that 2015 season. So they won their first nine games. It's kind of like a, it's a bit of a hidden fact, I reckon, that they were kind of not much better than a 50-50 team over the back half of the season.
I think they lost several games over the back half of the season. Obviously Nathan Fife got sore. He had been a very dominant player up till the halfway point. That was his first Brownlow medal year. So I do think this is a very different freemanal to that one. And obviously they weren't far away from making the grand final that year. They were, I think they were about three goals short of Hawthorne in the prelim, and Hawthorne were an exceptional team. That was the third of their Premiership three, Pete.

**Jonathan Horn** (3:37)
Yeah, and Hawthorne played almost perfect footy that night. And the Dockers, the Dockers were coming hard in that last quarter, as you no doubt remember. And there was that drop mark and Cyril pounced. And that was kind of it for that era of Dockers. That was sort of, yeah, I just think that that night, Harry, with Fife, what was it, a fractured leg he had that night?

**Mark Duffield** (3:58)
He fractured his leg. I think Matthew Pavlich tore a calf muscle. I think Luke McFarlane was unable to play because of a torn calf muscle, so they were pretty banged up by the time they got to the preliminary final.

**Jonathan Horn** (4:13)
And like you say, they dropped three of their last four home and away games, so they didn't, I don't know, it's just interesting to compare this current team to that era of Dockers. Obviously that 2015 Dockers side had won big finals before. They'd won a prelim, two qualifying finals.
They'd won an elimination final in 2012 against the reigning Premiers. So they obviously had that in the bank, but I just still think that this current Dockers team is a superior team to that 2015 side.