Wednesday's Questions and Answers PRELIM FINAL EDITION (16.09.2026)

Paul Heath (0:01)

Every gameday, you show up for your team.

SPEAKER_2 (0:03)

Now, it's your time.

SPEAKER_3 (0:11)

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Why wait?

SPEAKER_2 (0:30)

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Mark Duffield (1:05)

Yeah, it's time for some questions and answers. We've got some coming on, coming through on the text message.

487 736 736 is the number if you want to send your question or your thoughts through. And I think we've got a couple for each other on the preliminary final as well. But let's get on with it. Paul Heath.

Paul Heath (1:23)

Some news that's come through thanks to Roy as well. Ben King is set to join the Hawks on a seven year deal worth up to 1.2 million per year. Gold Coast will not match the offer and will receive pick seven as compensation.

Mark Duffield (1:35)

It's an interesting player, Ben King, isn't he? Yes. So he has a couple of very extreme strengths. He's quick on the lead, he's tall, he takes a good mark on the lead, and he's a good, reliable shot on goal.

Doesn't chase much.

Paul Heath (1:52)

No, it's the ground.

Mark Duffield (1:54)

Doesn't tackle much. It's like there's a line of demarcation.

Paul Heath (1:57)

A little bit, yeah.

Mark Duffield (1:59)

When the ball hits the deck. It'll be interesting to see whether they can work on that at the Hawks. He's a handy pick up, maybe even a valuable pick up. But I would have said that in the pecking order of power forwards in the competition now, there are others in front of him.

There's Josh Tracy, there is Logan Morris, there's Charlie Kerneau, there's a few ahead of him now. So he's got some work to do, I think.

Paul Heath (2:26)

Yeah, would they back in having someone like that with their smalls? So if he's not grabbing the mark, they don't have to worry about him necessarily doing the work at ground level because they've got a pretty good fleet of small forwards?

Mark Duffield (2:38)

Possibly, and they play a bit differently anyway, because with Gunston in the team, he stretches out, stays deep, tries to stretch the opposition's team fence to create the holes through it, so they can find their way through it. So they do play a little bit differently. They may adjust again with Ben King in the team.

Paul Heath (2:57)

To the game on Friday night, Freemantle versus Sydney, we've been running our eyes over the numbers and looking at the heights, and really got myself across quite a few heights of players that I didn't have earlier. But looking at it, Tre's a bit worried that Freemantle may be one short of their back one group being big enough.

Mark Duffield (3:18)

So whichever way they went, and a lot of this depended on the readiness of Brendan Cox to play in a preliminary final, whichever way they went, there was going to be a compromise somewhere, and the compromise player is Heath Chapman.

So had they said, OK, let's make sure we have the three tools to play on McDonald, Cournot and McLean, because obviously those guys kicked 14 goals against Brisbane, then Brendan Cox comes into the team, but it means that they probably don't have room to bring in, say, a Brandon Walker, which means that Heath Chapman has to be the guy that plays on Tom Papley. And you rely on Chapman's smarts and his ability to cut the angles and buffer and buffet Papley away from the goals and away from dangerous space. So that's the way they would have gone, had they gone with the three tools. Now that they've gone with the two tools, and I suspect, I don't know this for sure, Judd McVey may be retaining the team, but I suspect Brandon Walker comes into the team to play on Papley. Then Heath Chapman becomes the swing man again. He plays tall, and then it's a case of which one you put him on. Do you put him on Hayden McLean, who from a goal-kicking perspective is the least dangerous of them, but he's also the biggest of them, or do you put him on the one that's the best physical matchup, which is Charlie Kurnow, who is also the most dangerous of them? I'd be inclined to have Alex Pearce on Charlie Kurnow.