\n Fremantle forward Shai Bolton says he and his Western Australian teammates are out for bragging rights over Victoria\n <\/p>\n
Fremantle forward Shai Bolton says he and his Western Australian teammates are out for bragging rights over Victoria in February\u2019s AFL Origin match.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Thursday morning at his media conference following the announcement of nine new names to the Sandgropers squad – including Freo teammates Jordan Clark and Luke Jackson – Bolton explained that repping the gold and black of Western Australia would feel like suiting up for the state under-18s again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to see a full house. It\u2019s good that it\u2019s here in WA on our home turf, so we want to get as much of a crowd as we can,\u201d Bolton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll probably end up versing someone like Sebba (Caleb Serong), who is eligible for selection for the Vics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to get the bragging rights over them (Victoria).\u201d<\/p>\n
Bolton expressed that even with the first crop of names selected to represent WA, bountiful talent and speed were on display.<\/p>\n
Within Western Australia\u2019s first 14 names announced, the side boasts an impressive r\u00e9sum\u00e9 of two Brownlow Medals, one Coleman Medal, eight premiership players, and 12 All-Australian selections.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of speed in there,\u201d Bolton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of boys that have been there like Charlie Cameron in grand finals.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about who he was looking forward to suiting up alongside most, Bolton expressed his excitement to reunite with former Richmond teammate Liam Baker, as well as Carlton captain and Brownlow medallist Patrick Cripps.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get to play with Bakes (Liam Baker) again. I haven\u2019t played with Cripps (Patrick Cripps) before, Brownlow medallist and he\u2019s an absolute gun, so I\u2019m looking forward to playing with him,\u201d Bolton said.<\/p>\n
Shai Bolton tackling Patrick Cripps in Round 21 of 2025<\/p>\n
The WA team will be coached by Sydney\u2019s senior coach Dean Cox, with Freo’s Justin Longmuir as his assistant, while Geelong coach Chris Scott will lead the Victorians with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell assisting him.<\/p>\n
Western Australia and Victoria will face each other at Optus Stadium on Saturday 14 February.<\/p>\n
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Aaron Naughton\u00a0
Patrick Cripps
Shai Bolton
Tom Barrass
Chad Warner
Liam Baker
Charlie Cameron
Darcy Cameron
Jordan Clark
Bradley Hill
Jesse Hogan
Luke Jackson
Kysaiah Pickett
Sam Taylor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fremantle forward Shai Bolton says he and his Western Australian teammates are out for bragging rights over Victoria…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346143,"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-346142","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\/346142","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=346142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}