Mark Duffield - The Editorial (23.09.2026)

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This Friday, return to theaters for Avengers Endgame Encore.

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I know I said no more surprises, but I was really hoping to pull off one last one.

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Reassemble the team.

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Six zones, three teams, one shot.

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Relive the experience.

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You mess with time, time tends to mess back.

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The story continues.

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Tony, this is the second chance.

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Don't miss Marvel Studios Avengers Endgame Encore or early theaters Friday. Get tickets now. Rating PG-13, maybe inappropriate for children under 13

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Lailing WA for WA.

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This is Mornings with Mark Duffield on SENWA.

Mark Duffield (1:13)

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the SENWA radio studio. We're out here at Optus Stadium Wednesday morning in Perth. 17.6 degrees outside at the moment, building to a top of 21 degrees later in the day.

Mostly sunny. And we're here thanks to Beaumont Homes, award-winning design built to be loved forever. Made in WA for WA. This is Mornings with Mark Duffield on SENWA.

So, as it stands, Brisbane champion Lockie Neal remains suspended for Saturday's grand final against Fremantle. His one-match ban was upheld after an extraordinary four-and-a-half-hour tribunal hearing in which the tribunal took about two-and-a-quarter hours deliberating on the case before handing down their verdict. Now, we're waiting to hear if the Lions take one last throw at the Stumps by taking this to the appeals tribunal, which would probably happen on Thursday night if they elect to do so.

And I know that several listeners yesterday were blaming the media for Neil being suspended.

So before we get into the nitty-gritty of the case, let's just point out a couple of things. The media did not bring this to the AFL's attention. The AFL found it themselves and, quite frankly, many in the media, including me, were blindsided and shocked by the news which broke on Sunday morning that Neil was facing the ban. And they were also blindsided and shocked because they couldn't believe that a player of Neil's experience would run up to an unsuspecting opponent and hit him in the stomach, knowing that there are cameras everywhere at every AFL match, let alone a preliminary final at the MCG.

And he should have also known that an edict from Greg Swann, that players who punched opponents in the stomach were facing a one-match ban, and that since then, nine players this year had already found out the hard way that the AFL was standing firm on the crackdown. Now, not surprisingly, once the AFL found the footage, they had little option but to offer Neil the one-match ban. Equally, not surprisingly, the Lions took only minutes to declare they would be challenging the ban. More surprisingly, we saw two hours of evidence followed by a further two hours of the Tribunal mulling over the evidence before we got an outcome. And you have to say that the reason cases like this take so long is that the defendant doesn't have to pick one story and stick to it. He can throw multiple theories at the wall in the hope that any one of them sticks. So plan A for Neil was that this was not a strike, that it was a body check or bump, that he hit Ginevans shoulder first, and that it was the force of the bump that knocked Ginevans to the ground. But there is no video footage, grainy footage, yes, but footage none the less.

Sorry, there is video footage, grainy footage, yes, but footage none the less, that shows Neil swinging his left arm with his elbow bent in a striking pose, and his fist appearing to be clenched, although the tribunal said they couldn't conclusively without reasonable doubt say that it was clenched, at Ginevans with Ginevans bracing as if absorbing a blow to the stomach, not a bump to the shoulder. So Plan A failed. Plan B was OK, so maybe this was a strike, but look at Ginevans, he goes to ground, then he gets up pretty quickly, and he runs off. You have graded this contract, contact medium, but it should be graded as low, which gets the penalty down to a fine. But if you intentionally strike a player, the contact unless negligible is going to be graded as medium, and it is clear from the video that the force of the strike, while not high, was clearly greater than negligible, so therefore medium. So much for Plan B.