Mark Duffield - The Editorial (07.10.2026)

Mark Duffield (0:03)

This is Mornings with Mark Duffield on SENWA. Come on.

Welcome to the SENWA radio studio. We're out here at Optus Stadium. Wednesday morning in Perth, we are here thanks to Beaumont Homes, award-winning design built to be loved forever. It's gonna be cloudy in our city today, atop of 23 degrees later in the day. Made in WA for WA, this is Mornings with Mark Duffield on SENWA. Now, there are several interesting trade stories unfolding this trade period. So we wait on more detail on just how Zach Butters will get to the Western Bulldogs. The same applies to how Ben King gets to Hawthorn from the Gold Coast. So Hawthorn have tabled their offer to King. Will the Suns force a trade for him? Or can they placate it with a reciprocal trade that would see the opportunity starved forward Aidan Shubit join the Suns? St Kilda and Geelong continue to butt heads over Rowan Marshall. They appear a long way apart in agreement on a trade for the Wantoay Ruck. Adding intrigue to that is the perception that Geelong believes Nick Blakey can be shifted from Sydney, and or Jordan Ridley may be able to be shifted from Essendon. Now, either of these trades would almost certainly require a first round pick. St Kilda wants a first round draft pick for the 30 year old Marshall Geelong, or a very accomplished football club. It's going to be interesting to see how they handle all of that.

The media reaction to that has been interesting. So people say that a first round pick for Rowan Marshall is way too much. But conversely, nobody blinked when the Hawks coughed up the first, second, and future second round pick for 30 year old Zach Merritt. Zach Merritt is the same age as Rowan Marshall. Now, is Merritt a better player than Marshall? Yeah, well, he is. He won his seventh club Best in Ferris this year. But they are the same age, and age appears to be a major reason why analysts say the Cats can't possibly surrender a first round to the Saints.

Follow up question. Is Merritt more important to Hawthorn than Marshall might be to Geelong? Now, that is debatable. Anyone who watched Luke Jackson's domination of young ruckman Mitch Edwards in a semi-final a few weeks back might form the opinion that the Cats aren't winning the flag anytime soon unless they bolster their ruck stocks. Now, young rucks take time. Edwards is a very good young player, but he's 21 with 20 AFL games to his name. Rucks tend not to peak until they are 24 or 25, by which time Patty Dangerfield, Toby Green, Mark Blitzavs, and Jeremy Cameron might all be long gone, and the flag hopes gone with them.

Freemantle list manager David Walls has given Dockers fans little reason to doubt him in recent seasons. He is one of the most informed managers in his area of expertise in the AFL. But the cheapest chips trade arranged for Nathan O'Driscoll yesterday did raise a few eyebrows among the Dock of Faithful. O'Driscoll had a three-year contract offer in front of him at Freemantle. He was dropped from the Dockers senior team after a poor game against Hawthorne in the qualifying final in Perth. He made it clear that he wanted to explore his trade options, and the contract offer from Freemantle promptly disappeared.

O'Driscoll will get his three-year deal, and in all likelihood greater opportunity at AFL level at Richmond. The Dockers will get pick 61 back, a pick they are no certainty to even use. Now, it is fair to say that the jury is out on Nathan O'Driscoll as an AFL player. He's 24 He's played just the 55 matches since Adibu as a teenager in 2022 He's a fast and willing competitor, but he has a slightly skittish left foot, which can in one play pull off the remarkable, and in the very next one make the basic look difficult. But the 17 games he played in 2026 was the most he had managed in any season of his career, and he managed that in the best home and away season Fremantle has had in its existence. It was an indication of progress by Nathan O'Driscoll. If you wanted to point to his main weakness, it would be that he loses his feet too often.

It's something that happened a couple of times at critical moments in the final against the Hawks, and he paid a high price for that.

Do the Dockers feel they have players beneath at Peel who are set to usurp O'Driscoll? Cooper Simpson is one who needs opportunity. Jaren Carr showed glimpses this year on a wing at Peel. Simpson is 21, three years younger than O'Driscoll. Carr is 22, two years younger. Give us your thoughts and questions on any or all of that. 487 736 736 is the text line. 1312 55 is the Barra and Doday open line. Barra and Doday because the little things are everything.