{"id":359421,"date":"2025-12-20T01:04:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T01:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/359421\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T01:04:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T01:04:29","slug":"merrett-to-link-up-with-mitchell-as-victoria-returns-to-the-danger-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/359421\/","title":{"rendered":"Merrett to link up with Mitchell as Victoria returns to the Danger zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Victoria has announced seven more players for the 2026 AAMI AFL Origin match against Victoria\n <\/p>\n

Zach Merrett leaves the field after his 250th game for Essendon in round 24, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n

GEELONG skipper and eight-time All-Australian Patrick Dangerfield is among the latest group of players to commit to playing for Victoria for the return of State of Origin in February.<\/p>\n

Dangerfield will add to a strong Cats flavour for the Big V, with Jeremy Cameron, Max Holmes and Tom Stewart already confirmed starters and Chris Scott named as coach for the 2026 AAMI AFL Origin against Western Australia in Perth.<\/p>\n

ORIGIN TICKETS\u00a0Get your seats to WA v Victoria<\/a><\/p>\n

Also joining the Victoria squad on Friday is Hawthorn pair Josh Battle and Blake Hardwick, Greater Western Sydney defender Lachie Ash and star midfield trio Caleb Serong, Ed Richards and Zach Merrett.<\/p>\n

The presence of Merrett means he will get to work with Hawthorn senior coach Sam Mitchell, who earlier this month was announced as one of Scott’s assistants for the game. The Origin clash will come just months after Merrett’s failed trade push to join Mitchell at Hawthorn.<\/p>\n

The latest announcement means Victoria has 10 All-Australian midfielders among the 21 players named so far – Dangerfield, Serong, Richards, Merrett, Noah Anderson, Zak Butters, Marcus Bontempelli, Nick Daicos, Hugh McCluggage and Matt Rowell – with more announcements still to come.<\/p>\n

“Growing up I dreamt of playing footy, winning premierships and representing Victoria, so when Chris gave me a call to be a part of the return of Origin, I jumped at the opportunity to finally pull on the Big V,” Dangerfield said.<\/p>\n

“(Selector) Garry (Lyon), Chris and the wider coaching team are pulling together a great squad that epitomises what Victorian football is all about, we have a great mix of experience and youth, and no doubt everyone involved is looking forward seeing the Big V and Black Swan return in Perth next year.”<\/p>\n

Dangerfield is no stranger to pulling on the Big V jumper having played for Victoria against the All Stars in the Bushfire Relief game in early 2020.<\/p>\n

Friday’s announcement comes after WA confirmed another seven players for the match on February 14,<\/a> headlined by former Brisbane pair Callum Ah Chee and Brandon Starcevich.<\/p>\n

Patrick Dangerfield in action for Victoria during the State of Origin for Bushfire Relief in February 2020. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n

2026 AAMI AFL Origin squads<\/p>\n

WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Callum Ah Chee
Liam Baker
Tom Barrass
Shai Bolton
Charlie Cameron
Darcy Cameron
Jordan Clark
Patrick Cripps
Mitch Georgiades
Bradley Hill
Jesse Hogan
Lawson Humphries
Luke Jackson
Rory Lobb
Aaron Naughton
Kozzy Pickett
Wil Powell
Trent Rivers
Brandon Starcevich
Sam Taylor
Chad Warner<\/p>\n

VICTORIA
Noah Anderson
Zak Butters
Marcus Bontempelli
Jeremy Cameron
Nick Daicos
Sam Darcy
Max Gawn
Toby Greene
Max Holmes
Hugh McCluggage
Matt Rowell
Jack Sinclair\u00a0
Tom Stewart
Jacob Weitering
Lachie Ash
Josh Battle
Patrick Dangerfield
Blake Hardwick
Zach Merrett
Ed Richards
Caleb Serong<\/p>\n

* more players still to be announced for both squads<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victoria has announced seven more players for the 2026 AAMI AFL Origin match against Victoria Zach Merrett leaves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186046,"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-359421","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\/359421","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=359421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}