Sport / Fremantle, WA

AFL grand final: Fremantle Dockers star Shai Bolton wins Norm Smith Medal in losing side

The West Australian Samantha Rogers

26 Sept 2026 17:39 AEST Summary

From the report

Fremantle star Shai Bolton has been awarded the Norm Smith Medal in a losing side in a shock decision following Brisbane’s grand final victory at the MCG. SEE THE VOTES

This is a summary. The indicators are not. The scores were measured over this summary alone, which is less of the article than we would like and makes them less certain.

Indicators

Niral Score 4.3 mundaneloaded

None in this text. Words that carry a fact and quoted words are not counted.

final2grand2losing2side2star2

Sentiment -0.2 hostilefavourable Sourcing 42 unattributednamed sources Mood 60.3 sorrowjoyful

5 read zero: political diction, generational, gender, jingoistic, religious

Political diction 0 left-codedright-coded Generational 0 harder on the oldharder on the young Gender 0 no gendered framingframing throughout Jingoistic 0 reports to a readerwrites from a camp Religious 0 not invokedovert

Measurements of how this article is written, not of whether it is correct. How each one is measured.

Measured on The West Australian’s report as filed, which is all we may publish of this one.

How outlets headlined it

Each outlet's own headline. ~~Struck through~~: the loaded words our version leaves out. Plainest first.

The West Australian AFL grand final: Fremantle Dockers star Shai Bolton wins Norm Smith Medal in losing side plain
WAtoday Honoured, but surprised: Why Shai Bolton took off his medal right after winning the Norm Smith plain
The West Australian Surprise Docker wins Norm Smith in losing team plain
ABC News (Sport) Surprised Docker wins Norm Smith Medal in losing grand final team plain

How each outlet filed it

Also covered by WAtoday, Brisbane Times, The Age, The West Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald. We hold only their summary of it, not the report, so there is nothing of theirs to measure here.

Outlet	Niral Score	Adjectives	Sourcing	Sentiment	Happiness
The West Australianas they published this story	4.3	0	42	-0.2	60.3
ABC News (Sport)	20.3	5	21	1.0	48.5

How did this read?

Readers

Comments

Nothing here yet.

Questions

Readers can ask a question about this story here. Questions and answers are for subscribers. Sign in to read them.

Comments are read before they appear where anything in them needs a person to look. Nothing posted here is ever deleted; a comment taken down keeps its text and the reason, so the decision can be looked at again. How this works

Report a problem with these scores or this rewrite — it goes straight into the public ledger.

The same event elsewhere

6 other outlets filed this story. The scoreboard above is what they did differently.

WAtoday Honoured, but surprised: Why Shai Bolton took off his medal right after winning the Norm Smith Niral 5.6 political 0 Brisbane Times Honoured, but surprised: Why Shai Bolton took off his medal right after winning the Norm Smith Niral 5.6 political 0 The Age Honoured, but surprised: Why Shai Bolton took off his medal right after winning the Norm Smith Niral 5.6 political 0 The West Australian Surprise Docker wins Norm Smith in losing team Niral 4.4 political 0 The Sydney Morning Herald Honoured, but surprised: Why Shai Bolton took off his medal right after winning the Norm Smith Niral 5.6 political 0 ABC News (Sport) Surprised Docker wins Norm Smith Medal in losing grand final team Niral 20.3 political 0