Simon Garlick - Fremantle Dockers CEO (17.06.2026)

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**Mark Duffield** (0:56)
Welcome back to the SCNWA studio. We're out here at Up to Stadium on this Wednesday morning in Perth. The Fremantle Dockers are flying at the moment, apparently flying chartered planes, which Garry Lyon thinks is a big advantage for them. I'm not sure how he arrives at that conclusion, but anyway, their CEO, Simon Garlick joins us on the phone now. Simon, welcome.

**Simon Garlick** (1:18)
G'day Duff, thanks for having me on, mate.

**Mark Duffield** (1:20)
It's a pleasure. How is the atmosphere inside the four walls at Fremantle at the moment?

**Simon Garlick** (1:29)
Yeah, it's really positive, obviously, Duff, but nothing over the top by any stretch of the imagination. Probably a bit of a boring answer, but one thing that's been remarkably, or not remarkably, really consistent this year has been the approach of the flying group, whether that's after the loss of round one or obviously being fortunate enough to get on a run of wins.
It's been a really disciplined and measured approach and haven't seen at any stage it going over the top. They're enjoying having a good performance and a win and celebrating that sort of stuff, but tuning back in after a couple of days to focus on whatever task it might be in the next week. It's a really positive environment, Duff, but certainly nothing over the top.

**Mark Duffield** (2:13)
What do you make of comments like the ones Garry Lyon made? Basically, the fact that you've been flying charter flights, which I think you've been doing for a little while now, but that's a leg up over the competition, despite your travel itinerary.

**Simon Garlick** (2:29)
Yeah, you're right. This is, I think, our third year of charters, so obviously, it hasn't been a story in the last couple of years. It might just be bobbing up now when we're getting on a good run. But in reality, I think it needs to be taken in context. Duffield, we had numerous conversations on air in the last few years about the significant disparity in travel, and it's a really unique environment we operate here from an Aussie rules perspective in this country, in the sense that there's two things in Western Australia and 14 on the East Coast, 3,000 kilometers away, and nowhere else in global sport is that situation emulated.
It's in North America, there's a whole bunch of teams throughout middle America, there's no travel disparity. In the UK with the APL, it's a small country, there's no travel disparity for teams.
We've just by growth and by happenstance, ended up with this really significant situation where West Australian teams are flying some 55,000 kilometres in a year compared to some Victorian clubs who are flying 12,000 kilometres in some instances at the lower end. And being away for 28 days a year compared to some clubs being away for seven. I did note, I think it looks like the Saints don't travel for the rest of the year. So for the next three months, essentially stay at home. I think they leave Marvel once to drive down the road to the Caninnia Park. And good for them, that's great. But the reality is that the AFL and all the clubs, when we raised this and talked about this data and this reality, were very understanding and thought, geez, that's significant. So something like a charter flight where we worked on this initiative with the AFL, with the other clubs understanding and knowing it, we pay for it ourselves. So it impacts our cost space and our bottom line at the end of the year. But all it does is slightly decrease the disadvantage as opposed to creating some sort of advantage.
I would take from a performance perspective, staying home for three months during a year, which some Victorian clubs do, and not having charters overflying 56,000 kilometres and having charters any day of the week, from a pure performance point of view. So I think it's obviously a reactionary position some in the media are taking based on them just understanding for the first time that this is in place.