Mark Knight | Herald Sun cartoonist (24.09.26)
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What is the story behind Mark Knight’s controversial Fremantle premiership poster?
There are great rhythms and rituals to Grand Final Week as it progressively reveals itself to us. One of those is when Mark Knight produces his premiership posters and it's always a great pleasure to have him join me in the S E N van. Hello to you, Mark. Great to be here, Jerry. Good to see you. Congratulations as ever. Now I'm driving in this morning and Gary and Tim are talking about the biggest story in football is the kerfuffle. Around the Fremantle poster. I've got the interview. I've got the interview. It's a mute. Who would have thought? Well. So what what has transpired?
Well I draw these posters every year on prelim weekend as the teams drop and uh but I've been considering them, you know, for the last week, months and Freo have been at the top of the ladder and it was a good chance that they were going to figure in on a premiership poster. So I've been practising my warfies and building them up and, you know, observing warfie time and and this this culture around the club. And so when it came to drawing drawing the the the Dockers poster, it sort of draw drew itself as this beautiful, big, powerful Warfy with the anchor, covered in the sort of anchor tattoos, uh the beanie, uh the the beard and uh I thought, wow, I've nailed that. Yeah. And s and of course and I did the uh the the Lions and I've done the three peat poster there.
We send them off to the AFL and the clubs on Monday morning for the just the you know, the cursory approval. And word came back. Uh yeah, but nah. Yeah. They didn't like it. They said it didn't fit with the club's um sort of direction and how they see themselves and uh I I I must admit I uh I was like a a fullback with uh the wizard running around me. I was gobsmacked. Uh and uh so I had to redraw it for the first time.
How did the original Dockers poster get rejected and why?
Complete redraw.
Yeah so cursory approval. Have you had the knockback
before? In twenty ten we had uh of course the Pies poster and uh that was my second year of doing it and I had the big magpie and again I like to include something from the club or something from the players, something that paints a picture of the year. And so the magpie had the huge big Dane swan sleeve, tattooed sleeve. And the AFL did go, oh gee, I don't c can we have tattoos on the official premiership poster this is unheard of and I said well look uh have a look look at this bloke. He's covered in them and he's your star player and the fans will love it and they they said okay fine and so we went with it and the twenty twenty ten poster was was a big hit. Yeah.
So I started redrawing, but I wasn't quite sure where to go because you know production schedule is tight this week. You know, the post but once they're approved, they have to go off to production. And there's a time lag between here and and Freo. So eventually the word came back that they like a hipster style character, uh a man bun, long hair, maybe a nose ring if I could, and And uh maybe sipping a macchiato di cafflate. Uh I thought it was a joke, but no, they were feeding 'em. And um so I it sounded to me like they were describing um Pearcy, their their captain, you know, with the big hair. And he's he's fantastic to draw. But I'm not really allowed to concentrate on a particular player, but it I had nothing else to go with, so I drew this.
Um as you can see here, the big pierce character or the the the millennial hipster character on the bow of the Freo first flag. with the anchor that's been weighed, you can see there's all barnacles on the anchor. That's because it's been down there for so long. And he's he must be happy. They didn't want anger, so he's smiling broadly. And uh he's holding the Premiership Cup for twenty twenty six. So I you know, I I I I I like it. I think considering what I've I've the brief, I think it's come out well and I hope the Freo fans love it.
What changes were made to the poster after the club’s feedback?
He has blonde hair, Mark. Well that was a last that was a last rated hitch, Jordan. When I sent it they said, Oh that's great, but it looks too much like the captain now. Can you give him blonde tips? I'm serious. And so we did and and again I think he he is he's he's lovable and he's strong and he's proud and he's standing on the b it's a bit like, you know, that scene from uh Titanic.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the story behind Mark Knight’s controversial Fremantle premiership poster?
0:00–1:50
2
How did the original Dockers poster get rejected and why?
1:50–3:56
3
What changes were made to the poster after the club’s feedback?
3:56–6:14
4
Why did the club think the new design resembled their captain too closely?
6:14–6:44
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Whateley
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