Sport / Brisbane, QLD

Dockers captain to avoid surgery after grand final injury

ABC News Blake Kagi

29 Sept 2026 17:19 AEST Summary

From the report

Scans have confirmed Fremantle Dockers captain Alex Pearce suffered a partial tear of his Achilles tendon in Saturday's grand final loss to Brisbane.

How outlets headlined it

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

ABC News Dockers captain to avoid surgery after grand final injury plain
Brisbane Times Jake Kolodjashnij retires after Cats concussion scandal; Pearce avoids Achilles surgery plain
The West Australian Pearce 'thankfully' avoids surgery on Achilles injury plain
ABC News Silver lining for Freo captain after grand final injury ~~nightmare~~situation 1 change

Headline check

There is nothing in this headline a machine can check against the report: no figure, no name and no quotation.

Nothing was measured here, so nothing is claimed. How this is checked

This is a summary. The indicators are not. Every score on this page was measured over the full 447-word report, which is the only way the numbers mean anything.

How it is written

Niral Score 15.2 · mostly calm mundaneloaded

10 more readings adjectives, repeated words, sentiment, sourcing and 1 more and 5 at zero

Highlighted in the text. Words that carry a fact and quoted words are not counted.

fans5final5grand5loss5tear5confirmed4tendon4captain3partial3pre-season3season3sure3surgery3thank3avoid2career2club2comes2complete2events2expected2fears2football2greeting2holding2making2players2public2really2return2right2suffered2support2supporter2training2

Sentiment -0.9 hostilefavourable Sourcing 74 unattributednamed sources Mood 33.7 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

How the article is written, not whether it is correct. How each is measured.

Measured on ABC News’s report as filed, which is all we may publish of this one.

How each outlet filed it

Also covered by Brisbane Times, WAtoday, 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
ABC Newsas they published this story	15.2	9	74	-0.9	33.7
ABC News	21.4	7	56	-1.8	5.3

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The same event elsewhere

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

Brisbane Times Jake Kolodjashnij retires after Cats concussion scandal; Pearce avoids Achilles surgery Niral 8.4 · calm political 0 WAtoday Jake Kolodjashnij retires after Cats concussion scandal; Pearce avoids Achilles surgery Niral 8.4 · calm political 0 The Age Jake Kolodjashnij retires after Cats concussion scandal; Pearce avoids Achilles surgery Niral 8.4 · calm political 0 The West Australian Pearce 'thankfully' avoids surgery on Achilles injury Niral 30.5 · loaded political 0 The Sydney Morning Herald Jake Kolodjashnij retires after Cats concussion scandal; Pearce avoids Achilles surgery Niral 8.4 · calm political 0 ABC News Silver lining for Freo captain after grand final injury situation Niral 21.4 · mostly calm political 0