{"id":470591,"date":"2026-02-10T12:38:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T12:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/470591\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T12:38:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T12:38:35","slug":"afl-origin-jake-waterman-promises-wa-will-go-flat-out-against-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/470591\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL Origin: Jake Waterman promises WA will go \u2018flat out\u2019 against Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Australian key forward Jake Waterman says it will be an \u201cindictment\u201d if players do not go \u201cflat out\u201d in Saturday\u2019s AFL Origin clash against Victoria.<\/p>\n

The West Coast spearhead, who will be making his Origin debut more than a quarter of a century after his father Chris captained WA, said there was too much on the line not to go at 100 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand the chat about it not being fair dinkum,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve brought the State of Origin back for a reason, because it\u2019s such a rich history, and it\u2019d be an indictment on the game if blokes are going to rock up and not go flat out.\u201d<\/p>\n

All-Australian Waterman, 27, said the message from his WA captain Patrick Cripps, coach Dean Cox and chairman of selectors Glen Jakovich was \u201cwe\u2019re playing to win\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re coming over here in our backyard, so we\u2019re going to protect that. State pride\u2019s on the line. So as soon as you throw that in the ring, yeah, she\u2019ll be on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if that meant he might take some \u201ccasualties\u201d if any Victorian player got in his way on the long lead, Waterman said: \u201cAbsolutely. It\u2019s a game of footy… there will be a few nervous boys sitting in the hole I would have thought \u2013 at both ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waterman was one of the last players called into the 25-man WA squad, which will assemble for the first time on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

His father, a dual premiership player with the Eagles, represented WA five times at Origin level before the interstate representative clash became a casualty of the expanded national competition.<\/p>\n

\"JakeCamera IconJake and Chris Waterman. Credit: Ross Swanborough\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played in the great era where State of Origin was thriving, so I guess it\u2019s our job now to make sure that that starts back now and stays,\u201d he said, acknowledging he felt a \u201cresponsibility\u201d to make the first Origin game since 1999 a success.<\/p>\n

\u201c100 per cent. Fans and players been calling out for something like this to come back to life. There\u2019s a sense of responsibility, but it\u2019s not something we\u2019re going to think about, because we\u2019re just going to go out there and try and win a game of footy.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the greater honours that you can get as an individual sportsman, playing in a team sport. I\u2019ve been very lucky to play for WA a lot of times during my junior days, so I sort of know that the weight and the honour of what it feels like to chuck the jumper on.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I didn\u2019t think I was going to get the opportunity to do it again, so to be able to do it at a senior AFL level is probably a different kettle of fish to the junior days, but the sentiment of wearing the black and gold is always the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means so much, The Black Swan versus the Big V. There\u2019s got to be a little moment out there on Saturday night where I do get chills looking across at someone else\u2019s Big V on their chest and go, \u2018How good\u2019s that?\u2019 But I\u2019ll probably get even more of a chill when I look down and see the Black Swan on me again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JakeCamera IconJake Waterman with a fan at the Origin Locker Room in Forrest Place. Credit: Ian Munro\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

It will be Waterman\u2019s first game since round 12 of last season when he injured a shoulder and was sent in for surgery, but he said there would be no limits on how long he could play against the Big V and no one was happier for him to be selected than his West Coast coach Andrew McQualter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was absolutely rapt for me. He knew how bad that I wanted it,\u201d Waterman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing just about 100 minutes of match sim with training and I doubt I\u2019ll reach 100 minutes on the weekend, so anything that I\u2019m exposed to on Saturday night I\u2019ve already been exposed to over the last couple of weeks. There\u2019s no worries from a sports science point of view.<\/p>\n

\"JakeCamera IconJake Waterman on Tuesday. Credit: Ian Munro\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been going pretty hard throughout pre-season. I\u2019ve exposed myself to heaps of contests. I\u2019ve flown for heaps of marks, come down on my arse a few times – and I actually don\u2019t mind getting hit, it makes me feel a little alive a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Australian key forward Jake Waterman says it will be an \u201cindictment\u201d if players do not go \u201cflat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,49082,64,63,55,639,588,85,7067],"class_list":{"0":"post-470591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-afl-state-of-origin","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australian-football-league","13":"tag-australianfootballleague","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-west-coast-eagles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470591","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=470591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}