Mark Duffield - The Editorial (15.09.2026)

Mark Duffield (0:00)

Hello everybody, welcome to the SENWA radio studio. We're out here at Optus Stadium. Tuesday morning in Perth. We are here thanks to Beaumont Homes. Award-winning design, built to be loved forever. It's gonna be sunny in Perth today. It's getting warmer as the days go by this week, a top of 27 degrees. Made in WA for WA, this is Mornings with Mark Duffield on SENWA.

Now, I have a theory on AFL Premierships. They are extremely hard to win, and you need to strike while the tide is running your way and not against you. So this is a young, freemantled team. It is a team we can expect to be as good or better than they are over the next three to five years. But this team will not necessarily have as much going its way in coming years as it does at the moment. So let's cast our minds back to the 1992 West Coast Eagles, and you're likely to remember the heroics of Peter Matira, who kicked five goals off a wing in a Norm Smith medal-winning performance in the Grand Final. What you might not remember is the events that unfolded in the lead up to the flag. So West Coast had travelled to Melbourne in round 23 that season. It was the second last home and away game of the season. In wet and windy conditions at Witton Oval, they copped a 30-point hammering from the Western Bulldogs. Or actually, I think they were known as Footscray back in those days. That was the difference between West Coast winning the minor premiership and being guaranteed a home qualifying final, which would offer the pathway into a second semifinal with the reward of a week off, and finishing where they did, which was fourth, which meant that they were into an elimination final against their 1991 nemesis, Hawthorne. It was a home final at Subiaco, but the likely pathway into a grand final, if you went on rankings after the home and away round, was to be winned against the Hawks and then have to win an away first semi and then an away preliminary final and then the grand final at the MCG.

Now, that would have meant three weeks on the road. That's theoretically possible, but most of us on this side of the country knew even then that three weeks on the road, back to back to back against quality opponents, was likely to become one week too many. And that had proven to be the case the previous year, when the Eagles had lost to Hawthorne in a qualifying final and then had to travel to Melbourne to play Melbourne, then Melbourne to play Geelong, and then they had to go back to Melbourne to face the Hawks in the grand final. They ran out of puff at half time, and they got overrun.

But in 1992, something happened to swing things back West Coast way. So in the other elimination final, sixth place St Kilda beat third place Collingwood. That was the day before the Eagles faced the Hawks. And suddenly, the prize for winning the Subiaco Oval elimination final was a spot in the second semi, with the chance of a week off.

So the Eagles won that epic elimination final against Hawthorne. Then they blitzed the Cats in the second semi. Then they rested for a week. And then they repeated the dose in the grand final. History was made. For Freemantle, the shock qualifying loss to the Hawks left the flag door half shut. It looked like the path to a grand final would include a trip to Brisbane to play the Lions in a final. And you can just ask Adelaide what that feels like. But then the Swans beat the Lions, and suddenly the door opened wider again. So Sydney were superb in their qualifying final against the Lions, and you can't rule out the possibility that they'll be that good again this Friday night against the Dockers. The Dockers have to overcome a small lot ground at the SCG, and the Sydney crowd will be right behind the Swans. But one thing, or sorry, six things that freemantle won't have to overcome, are Callum Mills, Isaac Heaney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordan, Riley Bice. That's six of Sydney's first choice 23

And the Dockers will go with almost a full team themselves. So Brennan Cox is the only first team regular from this year, who is in doubt from a fitness perspective at this stage.

Now, I fully expect this freemantle team to play in a number of final series in the next few years. But I don't expect them to have this much in their favour that often. Justin Longmuir's team needs to harness the same spirit they mustered for their semi-final against the Cats. They need to catch this wave while the tide is running their way.