Fremantle veteran David Mundy still finds stepping up into the captaincy role a ‘huge deal’ as he led the Club he loves in the absence of skipper Nat Fyfe against Gold Coast at Optus Stadium on Saturday.
Mundy led from the front with 20 disposals, two goals, six clearances and a game-high eight score involvements as he set up Freo’s forwards with silver service out of the middle.
The performance also saw the 35-year-old collect three AFLCA coaches’ votes.
“It’s a huge deal, obviously, I had the year as captain in 2016 and either side of that I filled in quite often when Pav wasn’t playing and since then when Nathan hasn’t played,” Mundy told ABC Grandstand.
“It’s still a huge honour for me and it’s something that I love doing.
“I love having the final word to the guys before we jump into a game and being able to lead the team like that is something that I’m still really thrilled to be asked to do on occasion.”
Mundy said the win was a good morale booster for the playing group as they spend some time away from the club this week ahead of Freo’s round 14 bye.
“For the morale of the group, when we split up over the next few days it’s always a nicer feeling heading into that with a win under our belt,” Mundy said.
“It was certainly not a pristine performance by any stretch of the imagination, but we did what we had to and we executed for long enough.”
Despite the win, Mundy said there were clear improvements to be made, as evident by Freo’s second quarter against Gold Coast.
“We’ve still got elements in our game that are really not up to scratch and that we are really not happy with,” Mundy said.
“Particularly in that second quarter, we fell away from our basic type of football.
“We’ve got a long way to go to until we’re satisfied with how we go in big games.
“Hopefully, we can have a good back half of the year and see where that takes us.”
Adding to his football prowess, Mundy has excelled in a different way off the field this season, as he anchors down Fremantle’s newest podcast Old Bull, Young Buck alongside co-host Griffin Logue.
Mundy said he particularly enjoyed some of the things he was learning about his teammates.
“Some of those chats are really interesting that pop up and some of them are really surprising for me,” Mundy said.
“That’s the great thing about hosting with Griffin Logue, he seems to know all the little ins and outs of the different guys we get on.
“It’s a really great avenue to have those general chats about the things that we all know about each other that aren’t particularly public knowledge.
“We had a week off this week because Griff had his concussion so the podcast went into our concussion protocol! Hopefully, we’ll be back soon.”
Old Bull, Young Buck will return with a fresh episode next Thursday 24 June.\
