\n Liam Baker spoke to media following his selection in the in the WA team for the 2026 AAMI Origin match\n <\/p>\n
\n By westcoasteagles.com.au\n <\/p>\n
Liam Baker says he\u2019s excited to pull on the iconic Black Swan guernsey as he prepares to represent Western Australia in the upcoming AFL Origin clash against Victoria.<\/p>\n
The West Coast Eagles defender was announced in the WA team this week, and the news has sparked plenty of excitement both for Baker and around the club.<\/p>\n
For Baker, it will be the first time he\u2019s played in a representative match since playing for WA at under-18s level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait to put the jumper on again,\u201d Baker said at Optus Stadium on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying alongside guys like Shai Bolton, who I\u2019ve played with before, and others I grew up watching like Patrick Cripps and Jesse Hogan, that\u2019s going to be exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Victorian midfield is stacked with talent, Baker believes WA\u2019s speed and home-ground advantage will play a big role.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re coming over here, and I know what they\u2019re like, they don\u2019t like coming over here it\u2019s a bit too far for them,\u201d Baker laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur home turf, we\u2019ll have a good crowd there I\u2019d imagine.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur speed on the outside (will be important). There\u2019s Charlie (Cameron), Shai (Bolton) and \u2018Kozzie\u2019 (Kysaiah Pickett) already in the team. Good luck to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rivalry between WA and Victoria might not be as fiery as it was in decades past, but Baker believes there will be an edge when the two states meet.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cWe seem to think we get the rough end of the stick over here \u2026 but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s like it was back in the day with that actual hatred, what it sounded like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have a bit of fun with it, try and chirp it up a bit on the way to the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see how it goes but hopefully they\u2019re keen to get into it as much as we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baker also hinted at a potential showdown with teammate Harley Reid, should the young star earn a Victorian call-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be good to see Harley out there,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of the most exciting players in the comp, even though he\u2019s only played two years of footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he\u2019s out there, we\u2019ve already had a little chat, we\u2019d have a bit of fun out there and try to get one on each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the timing on the eve of the premiership season, Baker insists players will treat the contest seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust the excitement about playing for WA again, even in the group chat there\u2019s been a couple of messages talking about getting a win,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat excited me a bit, so I think the boys will be going full noise.\u201d<\/p>\n
The anticipation isn\u2019t limited to Baker, with several Eagles hopeful of joining him in the WA squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlokes like \u2018Loosh\u2019 (Jake Waterman) and Reuben (Ginbey) maybe, and \u2018Starce\u2019 (Brandon Starcevich), fingers crossed they get the call up because it sounds like they\u2019re pretty keen to play,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully there\u2019s a few more West Coast boys but I think a few of them might even come along and have a watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a bit of excitement around the club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liam Baker spoke to media following his selection in the in the WA team for the 2026 AAMI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-345731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}