FEW PLAYERS will ever forget their AFL debut but Paul Duffield's debut for Fremantle in the infamous ‘sirengate’ match is burned in his memory.
The 29-year-old defender qualifies for life membership in his 150th match for Fremantle this week, coincidentally against St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
Duffield's debut was against the Saints in round five, 2006, at Aurora Stadium, when the final siren sounded with the Dockers one point in front, but none of the umpires on the ground heard it.
The game continued with St Kilda's Steven Baker registering a behind to level the scores before a second siren blast was finally heard by the umpires.
On the eve of his milestone Duffield said the most memorable part of the match was the plane trip home.
"I got to sit up the front with Rick Hart (then Fremantle president) on the way home, which was probably the enjoyable part of the trip," Duffield said.
"I think it was the one time in my career that we didn't know what the result was going to be.
"We were on the plane coming home and we weren't sure what had happened and what the result was going to be and it got sorted out during the week."
Duffield said achieving life membership was a really significant moment after struggling to get his career of the ground for several years.
Duffield was rookie drafted in 2004 but spent the first two seasons playing in the WAFL. He played in a premiership with South Fremantle in 2005 only to be delisted and re-drafted via the rookie draft months later.
"I played 24 [AFL] games in my first five years and I played 70 or 80 WAFL games," Duffield said.
"I wasn't overly talented and I'm still not, I’m a bit of a plodder. I had to work hard to keep improving and I guess if you keep knocking on the door long enough you don't just knock on it, you knock it down.
"At some stage I had to make the choice to knock it down and try to go forward with my career, and make something of it and now looking back on that, that's something that I'm a little bit proud of that I made something out of something that might not have happened."
Duffield paid credit to former Fremantle assistant, and now Geelong senior coach, Chris Scott, Michael Prior and Ross Lyon for their influence on his career.
Lyon said Duffield has taken his game to a new level over the past three years.
"I've seen real growth in Paul," Lyon said.
"His leadership on the field, his consistency, he really worked hard to become a consistent preparer Monday to Friday and keep his intensity up.
"When he's up and intense he's a very good player and previously I think his challenge was consistency.
"I think he'd seen himself dropped and in and out of teams.
"He's stood up in finals for us. He's a really valued team member.
"I think he'd be the first to say that over three years he's shifted himself to a higher level. I think we'd all say that."
