Watch The 2026 AAMI AFL Origin match LIVE on Kayo Sports | WA vs VIC Saturday 14 FEB from 7PM AEDT | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n WHAT’S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.<\/p>\n Cox\u2019s WA assistants will be Fremantle\u2019s Justin Longmuir and Adelaide\u2019s Nathan van Berlo, while Scott will be assisted by Hawthorn\u2019s Sam Mitchell and Gold Coast\u2019s Shaun Grigg.<\/p>\n Both WA and Victoria\u2019s squads<\/a> feature players who either have a big contract call to make at season\u2019s end or recently been linked to rival clubs.<\/p>\n Star Victorian duo Zak Butters (Port Adelaide) and Ben King (Gold Coast) are both out of contract at the end of the year, while all eyes will be on contracted six-time Essendon best and fairest winner Zach Merrett in 2026 after his attempt to join Hawthorn late last year fell over, with a deadline day deal not stuck.<\/p>\n Ben King earns Victoria call up | 00:32<\/p>\n And despite fending off rival interest last year to re-sign with Sydney, star midfielder Chad Warner\u2019s contract expires at the end of the 2027 season.<\/p>\n Asked if the AFL had overlooked the possibility of active club coaches influencing players\u2019 future trade calls when deciding on this year\u2019s Origin coaching panels, Hinkley told SEN\u2019s <\/a>Sportsday<\/a> on Wednesday night: \u201cOne hundred per cent they have. It is an absolute advantage to those coaches.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the buzz word in football these days? We talk about it all the time. What are coaches and players trying to do? They\u2019re trying to connect, \u2018connection\u2019 is the word we look for all the time.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you get a four or five-day opportunity to create some connection with a potential new player, whoever the coaches are \u2013 and I\u2019m not going to single out any of the coaches, because it\u2019s not the coaches\u2019 decision. Let\u2019s be really clear, this was an AFL decision. It\u2019s a really simple AFL decision they have not thought about in any way, shape or form to consider the advantage they may or may not give.\u201d<\/p>\n Hinkley gave the example of when then-Port Adelaide star Chad Wingard played for Australia\u2019s International Rules teams in 2014 and was briefly in the 2015 squad before pulling out with injury. The Aussies were led by four-time Hawthorn premiership coach Alastair Clarkson in both years. Wingard left the Power to join Hawthorn after the 2018 season.<\/p>\n AFL Origin hype taking over Perth | 01:09<\/p>\n \u201cPart of that conversation \u2013 and I remember the conversations he (Wingard) was having \u2013 was that he enjoyed playing under \u2018Clarko\u2019 and he thought \u2018maybe I\u2019d like to play for Clarko\u2019. He\u2019d never had an opportunity to connect with Clarko before that,\u201d Hinkley said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you think about that, the AFL have not (given) any thought, I believe, on what should\u2019ve happened here. There\u2019s so many options out there in the State of Origin world that could\u2019ve coached. Paul Roos could\u2019ve coached or we could\u2019ve had Adam Simpson, we could\u2019ve had Guy McKenna or Peter Sumich to coach the Western Australians.<\/p>\n \u201cI get it. Everyone wants to be involved in this great game \u2026 But those relationships can stick and can make a decision (to move clubs) a little bit easier. Clearly that\u2019s not the only (reason), because they get to talk to players anytime of the year, but if that makes it a little bit better, there\u2019s enough discrepancies in the system now \u2013 whether it be draw, list management, academy, whatever you want to call them in the challenges of building a premiership list \u2013 this is just another one the AFL didn\u2019t need to add to it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure if the AFL had their time again, they\u2019d sit back and think: \u2018Gee, that\u2019s a little bit of common sense if I think like that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Hinkley said \u201cyou wouldn\u2019t be doing your job\u201d as an AFL coach if you weren\u2019t trying to use the Origin experience to build a rapport with a player who could be a future acquisition for your club.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one needs a leg up in the race and it\u2019s not right that you should get a head start on the field \u2026 The AFL have messed this up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley believes the AFL \u201cmessed up\u201d by placing active coaches in the two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[241779,241778,1146,638,14405,64,63,689,55,639,11295,6088,12923,241777,33069,12148,2105,2485,82803,148574,241776,239706,241781,17351,12141,10400,7484,241379,677,222600,21230,241780,6082,701,12936,228972,1124,85,241774,214272,1143,241775,7067,25581,23510],"class_list":["post-474080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-active-club-coaches","tag-active-coaches","tag-adam-simpson","tag-afl","tag-alastair-clarkson","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-king","tag-chad-wingard","tag-chris-scott","tag-coaching-panels","tag-deadline-day","tag-dean-cox","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-guy-mckenna","tag-head-start","tag-heated-contest","tag-injury-fears-surrounding","tag-involved-clubs","tag-jake-waterman","tag-jeremy-cameron","tag-justin-longmuir","tag-ken-hinkley","tag-nathan-van-berlo","tag-oceania","tag-origin-match","tag-paul-roos","tag-peter-sumich","tag-port-adelaide","tag-queensland","tag-sam-mitchell","tag-shaun-grigg","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-trade-advantage","tag-trade-calls","tag-trade-space","tag-victoria-windows","tag-west-coast-eagles","tag-zach-merrett","tag-zak-butters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474080","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=474080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n