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Just heard on 91.3 he passed away after a long illness. Sad to hear gone too soon. Condolences to his family and friends and all East Perth Royals. An added incentive for Sunday and will obviously be wearing black arm bands. Do it for the Duke.

Yes, got a huge shock upon hearing the news. Not sure his age, only in his late 60's I think?
A great player from yester-year. Gone too soon.

Very sad news about the passing of Wayne Duke, who joined East Perth in midseason 1978 and was one of three ex-Fitzroy players (the others being Glenn Robertson and Ian Miller, via Perth) to play in the Royals' 1978 premiership victory.
Wayne was a football gypsy as he briefly returned to Fitzroy in early 1979 (I think he was originally on loan to East Perth) but was back with the Royals by mid-season 1979.
He then played for Claremont in 1983, had a few years away from the WAFL and returned to East Perth for two cameo games in 1987.
Wayne was only 69 years of age, so he left us at far too young an age.

Yes,I learnt of Dukey’s sad passing the other week,and he will always be fondly remembered by Royals fans for his role in that famous ‘78 premiership win.Our captain coach of the day,who unfortunately has gone on to smear his legendary name,made a couple of telling calls after the second semi loss to the Demons.One of them was to opt to go for the hulking Paul Arnold as our preferred option at full forward,over the prolific goal kicking Archie Duda,which was was vindicated by his 9 goal prelim.and 4 goal grand final hauls,and the other big call was to have Dukey as our solo specialist ruckman,and drop big Ian McCulloch,who he rucked in tandem with in the second semi,and the rest as they say is history.