Monday's Questions and Answers (15.06.2026)

**Mark Duffield** (0:05)
Yes, welcome back. Some questions and answers. And the question that was put before the news. Why does Jared Whiteley think the North Melbourne deal is terrible? Well, probably because Jared doesn't leave Melbourne much.

**Paul Heath** (0:18)
I've seen him outside of Melbourne.

**Mark Duffield** (0:19)
Have you?

**Paul Heath** (0:20)
Yeah.

**Mark Duffield** (0:20)
Really?

**Paul Heath** (0:21)
Yeah.

**Mark Duffield** (0:21)
Is that like a door you walk through? You stand outside and have a durry and then you go back in again?

**Paul Heath** (0:27)
Neither of us have durries. Sorry.

**Mark Duffield** (0:29)
Yeah.

**Paul Heath** (0:30)
But you're right. Not that often.

**Mark Duffield** (0:33)
So it's 2.5 million a year for three years. It's $7.5 million.
They have to travel twice. Does that mean they're allowed to not show up in Bumbri?

**Paul Heath** (0:43)
Yeah, it doesn't.

**Mark Duffield** (0:44)
And get absolutely steamrolled? Adam Simpson and John Longmire did a really good coaching piece on this, on AFL 360, and they talked about the style that they tried to defend with in Bumbri, and how that played right into Freemantle's hands, and how Freemantle exploited it to the max and created a 124-point win, which was good coaching from Justin Longmire. But maybe it wasn't great coaching from Alistair Clarkson, and maybe it wasn't great endeavour from the players. And maybe instead of talking about deals being the reasons why you have results like this, maybe you should demand more of the players. You know why our clubs get better at travel?
It's because there's no choice.

**Paul Heath** (1:23)
Yeah, it's not going to go away.

**Mark Duffield** (1:24)
There's no choice. The problem with all these Melbourne clubs, they sell these games to, you know, whether it's North Melbourne coming here, or whether it was its Gold Coast going to Darwin. There's been others, GWS go to Canberra.
Apart from Hawthorne going to Launceston, Hawthorne made it theirs.
And no, it's not a big trip. So it's not like coming to the other side of the country, but they said, we're going to play 3 there. We're going to win them all. We're going to get some members out of it. We're going to get some money out of the Tasmanian government. Out of it. It's going to help our club not hurt us. And they probably get better at travel as a result of it.

**Paul Heath** (2:07)
Because of it, yep.

**Mark Duffield** (2:09)
You know what I'd be doing if I was North Melbourne? I'd be ringing the WA government, and instead of saying, can we get out of it? I'd be saying, how about if you're prepared to let us play West Coast and Bury Man, or both of them in Bumbury, rather than one at the stadium and one in Bumbury, we'll bring Gold Coast and GWS and play home games against them here as well, as long as we can get 15,000 Bumslon seats at Hands Oval. And you give us $6 million or $7 million a year instead of $2.5 million a year. And you know what?
They would still not travel as much as the WA clubs. Their club would be $6 million better off.

**Paul Heath** (2:49)
Yeah.

**Mark Duffield** (2:50)
Because you don't have to spend money to make that money.
And that enables you to properly resource your football programs, and that enables you to better compete. And it also enables your team to get better, because if your team is put in front of them, and the coach, instead of being like Damien Hardwick in Darwin, and instead of being like Jared Waitley about this North Melbourne deal, oh, it's a terrible deal, if they actually looked at it and said, no, we're going to do it, we're all in, there's no way out of this, so let's get better at it. Let's make ourselves a better, stronger, more resilient group. Let's get better at it. And the things we've learned about WA teams over the years is when they get good, they win everywhere. Because they just don't see travel as the reason why you win and lose.

**Paul Heath** (3:39)
They put it out of the mindset completely. And, I mean, to be fair, it's not really being fair, actually, to North Melbourne. I think they're being paid overs for what they brought to it.

**Mark Duffield** (3:48)
Well, mate, if they were paid a dollar for what they brought to Bumbry, they were paid more than they were worth that day.

**Paul Heath** (3:54)
Because I feel like the deals get talked about in retrospect as if they're doing us a favor by bringing football here. And it's like, well, the money is a big part of that deal.