FREMANTLE'S Luke McPharlin has no problem in saying his side's desire to win Sunday's derby against West Coast is solely to do it for the retiring Shaun McManus.

The derby will be McManus' 228th and last appearance for Fremantle and McPharlin revealed that sending him off on the right note is the player's main aim.

"What's at stake for us is to send Shaun McManus off on a good note. That's our absolute focus this weekend because he deserves and demands it. Everyone will be doing their absolute utmost to do that for him," McPharlin said.

"At the press conference on Monday it was emotional to see such a magnificent player, and person, retire. Our focus this week will be to perform to the best of our ability for him."

McPharlin couldn’t speak more highly of McManus on Wednesday, saying he has never played alongside anyone more inspirational.

"Shaun's always been someone that has been emotionally charged with his football and he drags everyone along with him. It will be hard to keep a lid on it, but we are going to have to maintain some sort of composure to not go over the top," he said.

"He just embodies everything that is Fremantle. He is a terrific, genuine bloke and does whatever he says he's going to, which is probably his greatest trait. He was here from the beginning and has been the face of this football club, so it's an honour for us all to be playing in his last game."

McManus joins Peter Bell and Matthew Carr as Fremantle retirees this year, with the future of fellow veterans Heath Black, Jeff Farmer, Dean Solomon and Mark Johnson still to be decided.

"It seems to be a changing of the guard. We have certainly lost some terrific players and people of the football club," he said.

"It's quite unusual for myself to now feel like one of the elder members of the club when I'm only 26. Who knows if there'll be any more retirees, that's all up to the individual player and what the club sees fit. We will see what happens, but we are looking at more of a youth policy."