{"id":377466,"date":"2025-12-29T04:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/377466\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T04:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:47:12","slug":"pretty-pissed-afl-star-denied-origin-chance-amid-selection-criteria-queries-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/377466\/","title":{"rendered":"“Pretty pissed” AFL star denied Origin chance amid selection criteria queries – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Brisbane premiership star Will Ashcroft<\/a> has revealed he is not eligible to represent Victoria at next year’s AFL Origin<\/a> against Western Australia despite meeting the initial selection criteria.<\/p>\n

Ashcroft played his junior football in Victoria from the age of 14, having led the Sandringham Dragons<\/a> and Vic Metro during his draft year before being selected by the Lions at Pick 2 in 2022.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old was tied with St Kilda City as a local club, however he did not feature for the grassroots side given his representative commitments at higher levels.<\/p>\n

Ashcroft featured for Southport and Broadbeach in Queensland at a younger age and now looks likely to represent the Sunshine State\/Allies in the AFL Origin<\/a> arena should a team be selected in the future.<\/p>\n

AFL ORIGIN: SELECTED SQUADS, PREDICTED LINEUPS<\/a><\/p>\n

The AFL’s eligibility criteria from October read that “the best available players, based on their junior club location from where they were drafted” would be selected.<\/p>\n

However, according to Ashcroft, the AFL<\/a> has since made “some changes to the criteria”, leaving the two-time Norm Smith Medal winner “pretty pissed”.<\/p>\n

“Apparently they’ve decided now that I’m not eligible, so I’m not playing unfortunately,” he told\u00a0News Corp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"2022GEELONG, AUSTRALIA – JUNE 26: Will Ashcroft of Vic Metro celebrates a goal during the U17 Championships match between Vic Country and Vic Metro at GMHBA Stadium on June 26, 2021 in Geelong, Australia. (Photo by Morgan Hancock\/AFL Photos)<\/p>\n

“I’m pretty pissed about it, but I think there’s been some changes to the criteria.<\/p>\n

“I would have loved to play for Victoria, but unfortunately it isn’t happening.”<\/p>\n

The AFL<\/a> has granted Melbourne ace Kysaiah Pickett<\/a> an exemption to play for Western Australia when the state clashes with Victoria at Optus Stadium on February 14.<\/p>\n

Pickett grew up in WA before heading to South Australia to strengthen his draft chances, with the premiership Demon selected out of Woodville-West Torrens.<\/p>\n

The lively forward headlines a strong Black Swans outfit, which also includes Sam Taylor<\/a>, Patrick Cripps<\/a>, Chad Warner<\/a> and Luke Jackson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Victoria’s squad is littered with stars, having Matthew Rowell<\/a>, Noah Anderson<\/a>, Nick Daicos<\/a> and Marcus Bontempelli<\/a> leading an eye-watering midfield unit.<\/p>\n

Both WA and Victoria are expected to name more squad additions ahead of the return of Origin football, with Sydney’s Dean Cox<\/a> and Geelong’s Chris Scott<\/a> named as the senior coaches respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane premiership star Will Ashcroft has revealed he is not eligible to represent Victoria at next year’s AFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-377466","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"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377466","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=377466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}