Mark Duffield - The Editorial (15.06.2026)

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:30)
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**Mark Duffield** (0:59)
Hello everybody, welcome to the SENWA radio studio. We're out here at Optus Stadium on this Monday morning in Perth. We're here thanks to Beaumont Homes Award-winning design, built to be loved forever. Showers today, they say partly sunny, but I'm suspecting only partly a chilly maximum of just 15 degrees. Made in WA for WA, this is Mornings with Mark Duffield on SENWA.
Two things are clear on this Monday morning. So Australia is off to a flying start in the FIFA World Cup, thanks to two brilliant strikes from audacious youngsters in their 2-0 win against Turkey. And the second thing is that West Coast spearhead Jake Waterman well and truly has a case of the goal kicking yips. For the second time in as many weeks, Waterman was dominant everywhere, except when he had the ball in his hands and the set shot in front of him.
Man, what a season he would be having if he was kicking straight. We'll get back to that later. But first, there is nothing bigger than the FIFA World Cup. And Australia's bid to make it to the knockout phases for the first time since 2006 has been turbocharged by the win in Vancouver over Turkey, who it must be said were a little more confident pre-match than their performance suggested they should have been. They won't underestimate the Aussies again. In this story, Irin Kunda's brilliant goal put the Soccaroos ahead before half time, and then Conor Metcalf blasted a left-footed rocket home from long range after half time to make sure of the result.
That was big, but it does get bigger. The Soccaroos next match is against Host Nation, the United States. Right now, the Aussies have grabbed our attention in Australia, beat the Yanks, and they will have the world's attention. They're written off pre-tournament as a bunch of no-names, and the Soccaroos have a savvy defence based on coach Tony Popovich's football philosophies. What they showed against Turkiya is they also have talent and the ability to sting you on the slingshot counter-attack. Are we entertained? So far, we absolutely are.
Back on Waterman, and for the second week in a row, he was dominant as the Eagles' primary target in attack, and for the second week in a row, he finished with three goals, and for the second week in a row, he should have kicked more. So with seconds left on the clock, he shot from moderate range directly in front for the win, and he hit the post. Is there an upside to this story? I think there is. As Neil Danaher would have said, when your life gets tough, you always have opportunity. Waterman's opportunity here is to get the yips dealt with and put them behind them in the rearview mirror before he is taking a shot like this, like the one he had on Saturday, just for a win, and not to put the Eagles into a final. This was just to grab four points from another struggler in a year which will be more about showing they are on the up rather than making playoff football.
So, to put Waterman's season in context, he has now booted 31-37 for the season. If he had gone at his usual career accuracy of 61%, his season would have produced more than 40 goals, which would have put him close to the top of the leaderboard in the race for the Coleman medal, and in line for a second All-Australian jumper.
So it's not all doom and gloom here, Eagles fans, and as we have said earlier, there will be far worse times for Jake Waterman to have the yips than now. What we did see against the Roos was just how much the Eagles are going to miss Ruben Jinby's defensive exuberance. In his absence, Liam Duggan and Brandon Starcevich had to concede both centimetres and kilograms to Jack Darling in one-on-one marking contests, and Darling booted four goals before half time. The commentators said Jack was whining the clock back, but was really more a case of the 34-year-old cashing in on mismatches. The Eagles do appear to have found one in defender Marcus Herbert, who was strong in the contest and very composed with the ball in his hands. We also wondered last week whether Job Shanahan would be better value in defence or attack in Jinby's absence. And it turns out he is value in either role. He got himself into this game after a quiet first half with a series of marks behind the ball. And then he almost helped Waderman win it with clunks and three goals ahead of the ball.