Mark Duffield - The Editorial (12.10.2026)

Mark Duffield (0:05)

Made in WA for WA. This is Mornings with Mark Duffield on SENWA.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the SENWA radio studio out here at Optus Stadium. Monday morning in Perth.

Excuse me. Nearly swallowed my coffee the wrong way. Monday morning in Perth. We are here thanks to Beaumont Homes, an award-winning design built to be loved forever. It's going to be sunny in Perth today with a top of 22 degrees. Made in WA for WA. This is Mornings with Mark Duffield on SENWA.

So lots to talk about today on a range of topics. The South Africa-Australia test in Durban, the heroics of Matt Renshaw, which have put Australia in a strong position against the Proteus. This was a case of selectors picking a bloke who has batted his backside off to get back into the team, as opposed to picking a bloke who has barely played during the past 12 months because of illness.

There's also the Sheffield Shield. What a terrific win by Western Australia, and we'll talk to their captain and hero of the day, Aaron Hardy, later in the show. He scored an unbeaten 80, and Sam Fanning joined him with a torn hamstring to get the winning runs in a two-wicket win. There was Bathurst yesterday. How about the barnstorming finish by WA's Brody Costecchi? He lost the lead after a slow pit stop when they tried to change the brakes. Then he came from fifth in the closing laps to storm past everyone in front of him, and then passed leader Anthony Di Pasquale when Di Pasquale ran out of fuel on the last lap. Incredible driving by Costecchi. An incredible drama and misfortune for Di Pasquale. There was AFLW and not a great weekend for the WA team. So West Coast needed the away win against Port Adelaide at Elberton, and they didn't get it. The girls looked ever so slightly flat after their big breakthrough derby win against Fremantle the previous week. With their poor percentage, you can expect that Daisy Pierce's team will need to win all three of their remaining games to play finals this season. Lisa Webb's dockers were brave and full of endeavour against the might of North Melbourne and Arden Street, but they couldn't get scoreboard pressure on the Kangaroos, and they couldn't execute skills well enough when it mattered. One thing they did avoid though was too much damage to their percentage when playing the top team. They will need to win at least two and possibly all three of their remaining games, but they do get a good chance to put another win on the board against a struggling St Kilda next weekend. Let's start with Renshaw. He made his last test century nine years ago. There was 182 against Pakistan at the SCG.

He has fought like hell to get back into the Aussie test team, and he's 190 in this game. Will be the reason we win if we do manage to win.

So forget the hit and giggle we've seen in many recent test matches. This was a real test innings. Was full of character, skill, and patience. Made the bowlers bowl to him. And when they didn't, he let the ball go. And when they came to him, he punished them. He got great support from the Aussie tail. Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon both played pivotal roles in big partnerships after Australia's top order had failed again, and we had slumped to 6 for 180 So Wrenshaw showed great skill. He showed great composure. He showed great patience in tough circumstances. And this is what test cricket is all about. Similar traits showed by Aaron Hardy, who on days three and four of the Shield win over Queensland in a low-scoring game at the Whacker.

WA looked gone for all money after the second day when they trailed by 130 Then Jai Richardson and Joel Paris got amongst the Queensland batters in the second innings, knocked them over for 68 Then we collapsed again and looked gone for all money again before Hardy got support from his tail. And most heroically from Sam Fanning, who had a torn hamstring in the field, could not run at all. He had to hobble crab-like between wickets as they counted the runs down. The West Aussie still have work to do on the top order of their batting, but this was a gutsy win. And after getting behind the field early in the last couple of shield seasons, it was a really important win at home in their shield opener. 487 736 736 is the text line. 487 736 736 736 is the Bower and O'Day open line. Bower and O'Day, because the little things are everything.