{"id":899599,"date":"2026-09-21T03:00:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T03:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899599\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T03:00:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T03:00:31","slug":"afl-grand-final-shaun-mcmanus-unveiled-as-fremantle-dockers-premiership-cup-presenter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899599\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL grand final: Shaun McManus unveiled as Fremantle Dockers\u2019 premiership cup presenter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaun McManus says he\u2019s \u201cabsolutely honoured and blown away\u201d to be Fremantle\u2019s premiership cup presenter, with the Dockers icon bestowed the role should the club salute on grand final day.<\/p>\n

The 228-gamer was asked to take on the role by Freo chief executive Simon Garlick on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

McManus was an inaugural Docker and captained the side across 2000 and 2001. The 50-year-old is renowned as one of the club\u2019s favourite sons, and will now be a part of the celebrations alongside Justin Longmuir and Alex Pearce on the grand final stage if the club is victorious on Saturday.<\/p>\n

McManus had been considered among the front-runners for the role, alongside the likes of Nat Fyfe and David Mundy. Fellow former skipper Peter Bell did the cup-presenting honours for the Fremantle in their previous grand final appearance in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely honoured and blown away,\u201d an emotional McManus said on Nova after accepting the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be amazing for my family, obviously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Justin – we\u2019re great mates. I\u2019ve loved everything you (Garlick) have done and everyone else who\u2019s been on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love the boys. I\u2019m so proud of them, Alex and the guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m blown away. It\u2019s unbelievable to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garlick said McManus \u201cperfectly sums up what a Fremantle person is\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"McManusCamera IconMcManus celebrates a goal in 2001. Credit: Iain Gillespie\/WA News<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a remarkable career as a Fremantle player, but beyond that he has been a champion of this club since our humble beginnings back in 1995,\u201d Garlick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose early foundation years weren\u2019t easy, and as a 19-year-old he came in showed great qualities which resulted him being named captain at just 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe courage he showed on field speaks for itself, but ever since retiring he\u2019s been a passionate and positive influence, someone who purely lives and breathes Freo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are good enough to get the job done on Saturday, it will be a great moment to see Shaun present the cup to Alex (Pearce), and his old teammate Justin (Longmuir).\u201d<\/p>\n

McManus\u2019 call-up comes a quarter of a century on from his involvement in arguably the most courageous act in Dockers history<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The midfielder went back with the flight of the ball in the first western derby of 2001, crashing into West Coast\u2019s David Wirrpanda in the south-eastern pocket at Subiaco Oval. After spending time on the turf recovering, McManus got up and slotted the goal with what Dennis Cometti described as a \u201cmagnificent kick\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

McManus took on a player development coaching role at the Dockers after retiring in 2008, with his playing career finishing on a high note with an emotional derby win over the Eagles.<\/p>\n

\"McManusCamera IconMcManus getting chaired off in 2008. Credit: Mal Fairclough\/WA News<\/p>\n

Shaun\u2019s cousin and diehard Dockers fan Rove McManus was one of the first to comment on the club\u2019s Instagram post confirming the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo well deserved and such a perfect response,\u201d Rove wrote. \u201cA massive honour to a deserving champion of the club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shaun McManus says he\u2019s \u201cabsolutely honoured and blown away\u201d to be Fremantle\u2019s premiership cup presenter, with the Dockers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,10124,588,85],"class_list":["post-899599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-fremantle-dockers","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}