QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS - ALL WEEK! (10.09.2026)

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Mark Duffield (1:03)

Welcome back to the SCNWA studio Monday morning in Perth, 18.6 degrees outside. Nice and sunny, Paul Heath.

Paul Heath (1:11)

Yes, just as the disposition is amongst all Freemantle fans this week after Thursday night.

Mark Duffield (1:16)

Did the long-suffering Freemantle supporter re-emerge in the wake of Thursday?

Paul Heath (1:20)

Yeah, well, for everyone or for myself?

Mark Duffield (1:25)

No, for everyone.

Paul Heath (1:26)

For everyone, yeah, definitely. I think it came out.

Mark Duffield (1:28)

Well, I heard something on another radio network, and I just thought, oh, my.

Paul Heath (1:37)

I felt like I got needled with it a bit because I was in here doing recce on Friday.

I had a Bucks party on Saturday where everyone was just talking about that. The Brisbane Sydney game was on TV, and I was like, come on, let's talk about this instead. Let's talk about something relevant, something current. But no, it's definitely been out and about, and a lot of, well, this is what they always do sort of stuff. And not that you get a mulligan in finals, but as much as 12 of them basically laid an egg on Thursday, and you can't think that that's going to happen again in the one game.

Mark Duffield (2:05)

You know, the one thing I would say, and this is like, I think they will be more composed when they play the Cats, but all year I've been watching them, and they've been so much fun to watch, and it's been great to watch, but that extra handball in the handball chain, and I've looked at it all year, and I've thought to myself, I wonder how that stacks up under finals pressure.

And if I was Justin Lomio, apart from doubling down on what's got you there, I would be urging them to be a little bit more efficient with the way they move the ball. A little bit less for how it looks, and a little bit more to the first guy that gets out with time and space to use the ball decisively and shift it a long way from the point of pressure. That's what he has to do. That does not require another handball.

Paul Heath (2:55)

Definitely.

Bruce from Alfred Cove is saying, Hi Mark, a bit left field here, but why not shift Young to half back and throw Warner into the centre bounce? Tell him his job is to bang bodies and not let our mids get bullied. Do it fairly, but crunch Mullin, Atkins and Co. Alternatively, throw Tracy or Voss in there to do the same thing at the first couple of centre bounces. Have some physical presence right from the start, says Bruce.

Mark Duffield (3:14)

I think if you look at the stats, Bruce, Fremantle were in the contest. They lost centre clearance quite convincingly, I think, over the four quarters. But they were in and around stoppage. They were OK apart from centre clearance. Contested possession, they were OK.

They had a lot of uncontested possession, but they gave them the ball back.

It's as simple as that. They didn't protect the ball. They certainly didn't protect the ball, leaving their back half, and that created great scoring opportunities for the Hawks. And credit to the Hawks, because what they did was they bought numbers up to the contest. They put numbers inside the corridor. They dared Freemantle to take it on, and Freemantle took bad risks, and executed badly going back in there, and they paid the price. I wouldn't be making too many changes, because all you do is unsettle things more. I'd be going with what has got me the 19 wins and 4 losses.

Paul Heath (4:10)

Definitely.

Joel from Carl, I was saying, hey, Dr Duff, my Freemantle psychologist. So you'll be able to tell Dr Sean on Wednesday that you're also a doctor now. I think my pain daled slightly after the full weekend of finals, put the result into perspective. Freya should bounce back against Shillong. It's time to stand up and show us they want to be the first premiership side, says Joel.