Herd on the Terrace: Andrew McQualter and Justin Longmuir lairs loom large in Telethon Ball bidding battle

Some lucky footy fans with a lot of cash to splash will have something extra special to look forward to once the AFL trade period ends next Wednesday and our beautiful game heads into its pre-draft slumber. Because up for grabs at the Telethon Ball auction next Saturday night are access-all-areas hospitality packages which include seats within the inner sanctum of the West Coast and Fremantle coaches’ boxes on game day. With the right bid, they could be sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with new West Coast coach Andrew McQualter as he celebrates a Liam Ryan screamer or beside Fremantle veteran Justin Longmuir as he witnesses Jye Amiss’ return to near perfection. The Eagles offering may even have special appeal to Dockers diehards given it is built around the western derby — arguably the most important encounter for tragic Freo fans. And access goes far beyond the actual game. The West Coast package for two features a peek inside the Eagles nest at Mineral Resources Park the day before the derby, attending the captain’s run and meeting senior players and chief executive Don Pyke. On derby day, the special guests will see the pre-game change room briefing and player warm-up before watching McQualter up close. The Fremantle package for two not only involves joining Longmuir in the box and change rooms access before and after a Dockers home game but also includes a tour of the Dockers’ Cockburn headquarters and a boardroom lunch with Longmuir and chief executive Simon Garlick. Always hungry for such experiences, the Bull is hoping to secure finance to bid at the auction. Yet even the Bull — with his lifetime of connections at the big-end of town — has little hope of gaining access to an exclusive Friday night function at Crown Perth for select A-listers that kicks off the Telethon weekend. We hear event organisers have been receiving quizzical calls from hopefuls who had been expecting invitations to this sought-after function. Like the Bull’s elusive Friday night invitation envelope, theirs must have been lost in the mail. Liontown boss mauls suppliers Local suppliers rolling up for scrambled eggs at an Association of Mining and Exploration Companies breakfast this week hadn’t expected to also cop a big serve of bile. As part of a garden-variety Q&A session, AMEC frontman Warren Pearce threw a prompting question to a panel of mining execs about what would make them choose one contractor over another. It fell to Liontown Resources chief operating officer Adam Smits to answer first. Smits recalled his team had been less than pleased with some mining kit that arrived during construction at its newly producing Kathleen Valley lithium operation. Smits went so far as to say vendors not delivering on what they promised created more headaches than any issues related to permits or cost. “We had equipment turn up that didn’t physically work,” he said. “We had equipment turn up that was corroded and rotten.” And he had a pretty simple plea to vendors: “If you say you’re going to do this, this is what we want you to do.” The gear may have been a bit rusty, but we hear Liontown is hitting its stride in ramping up the new operation to full pelt. Pantoro hedges its words It is hard enough grasping ASX announcements about complex financial instruments without them being couched in doublespeak. But this is just what we copped from Norseman gold miner Pantoro this week as its unveiled a “gold price protection facility” that it claimed was “executed without any payments to the counter party”. This facility is really a gold price hedge deal with renowned charity Commonwealth Bank partially protecting Pandoro against a gold price fall in 2025. Hedging has become a dirty word as a record gold price and surging costs smash miners who locked in a yesteryear price for much of their output. And though there may be no cash changing hands up-front, Pantoro has paid for the hedge. It has sacrificed some of the profits it would otherwise enjoy if gold rallies next year well beyond the current price of $3900 an ounce. Call options for 1000oz of gold each month effectively put a $4200/oz price cap on 12 per cent of the Pantoro’s forecast production in 2025.