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Dockers star Sean Darcy lifts the lid on David Mundy’s VERY different retirement speech after Fremantle stalwart pulled the pin almost 20 years after joining the club
- David Mundy announced on Monday he will retire at the end of the season
- Veteran midfielder has played a club record 371 games for the Dockers
- Mundy kept his retirement speech in front of his teammates very short
- He urged them to focus on beating the Western Bulldogs on Saturday instead
- Dockers have slipped to sixth on the ladder after a three-game winless run
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David Mundy’s retirement speech was a typically understated affair, with the Fremantle great adamant his decision to walk away from the game should not take focus off the Dockers’ push for a top four spot.
The 37-year-old will retire at the end of the season and communicated his decision to teammates and the coaching staff on Monday, but urged them to focus on Saturday’s clash against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium.
Speaking to the Back Chat podcast, Dockers ruckman Sean Darcy revealed Mundy’s speech lasted less than a minute.
David Mundy announced on Monday he will retire at the end of the season
‘In front of the boys, it was honestly I don’t think longer than 40 seconds,’ he said.
‘I’ve sat through a couple and they go for 10-15 minutes and have the works, tears and he was in and out. He goes “we’ve got bigger fish to fry” and just sat down.
‘He said ‘thanks to the physios and all the support staff, you mean so much to me, and to the boys, this is my last season’ and then a little bit more. […] He hates talking about himself.
‘Even during the presser after, reporters were asking him what he wanted to be remembered as and he said “an honest battler”.’
The veteran midfielder has played 371 games for the Dockers, a club record
Mundy has spent all his 19 seasons in the AFL with Fremantle since been drafted in 2004
Mundy has played a record 371 games for Fremantle since making his AFL debut 18 years ago and Darcy believes his teammate should be considered the greatest player in Dockers’ history.
‘He’d have to be up there,’ he said.
‘His sustainability […] he had his best year in the Brownlow last year. That’s just unheard of, absurd.
The 37-year-old kept his retirement speech short and urged his teammates to focus on the game against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday
‘Even when you get to that age, surely you pull the 300/350 [game] card but he’s still doing the time trial with us during the pre-season.’
Fremantle hope to end a three-game winless streak against the Bulldogs on Saturday, after losing to Sydney and Melbourne and drawing against Richmond.
The Dockers are sixth on the ladder and end the season with two winnable games on paper, as they host 17th-placed West Coast in Round 22 before traveling to Sydney to face GWS the following week.