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The best on ground medals
Both teams will have best on ground medals after tonight’s match, here are the details.
FROM THE AFL:
The Graham Moss Medal will be awarded to the best on ground player for Western Australia, while the E.J. Whitten Medal will be presented to the best on ground player for Victoria.
Western Australian football great Graham Moss will present the Graham Moss Medal, while Ted Whitten Jnr, son of E.J., will present the E.J. Whitten Medal.
The winning team on Saturday will be awarded the Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer Cup, the perpetual trophy contested between Victoria and Western Australia, and will be presented by Kim Farmer, daughter of the late Polly Farmer.
Patrick Cripps and Marcus Bontempelli pose with the Graham ’Polly” Farmer Cup.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Previous winners of Graham Moss Medal
1995 Tony Evans
1996 Derek Kickett
1997 Scott Cummings
1998 Peter Bell
Previous winners of E.J Whitten Medal
1985 Paul Roos
1986 Dale Weightman
1986 Kevin Walsh
1987 Greg Williams
1987 Chris Langford
1988 Paul Roos
1988 Gerard Healy
1989 Gavin Brown
1989 Jason Dunstall
1990 Simon Madden
1990 Dale Weightman
1991 Barry Mitchell
1991 Alan Ezard
1992 Stewart Loewe
1992 Robert Harvey
1993 Tim Brown
1993 Robert Harvey
1994 David Calthorpe
1995 Tony Lockett
1996 Robert Harvey
1997 Gavin Brown
1998 Rohan Smith
1999 Brent Harvey
Does AFL Origin have a future? We will find out tonight
By Danny Russell
We should know the future of State Of Origin football by 7.45pm.
By then, the sell-out game in Perth will be five minutes old, and fans will know if players such as WA captain Patrick Cripps have delivered on their pre-game promise of “having a crack”.
AFL CEO Andrew Dillon speaks with media in Perth on Saturday.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
It has been the most asked question of players this week: Is this going to be a Mickey Mouse clash?
“I’m a bit sick of answering it, to be honest,” Victorian captain Marcus Bontempelli said on Thursday night.
Excuse us for being cynical, Bont, but we want to see it with our own eyes.
Just because Perth Stadium is a sell-out, and just because players say they are taking it seriously, does not mean that AFL fans across the country are invested in the concept’s revival. Not yet, anyway. We want to see it with our own eyes.
AFL boss Andrew Dillon is less concerned. Despite lingering doubts, despite injury fears, he has all but guaranteed the future of State Of Origin football – whether we want it or not.
“I think what we’re looking for is, ‘OK, what does it look like next?’,” Dillon said in Perth ahead of Saturday night’s historic revival of the state-versus-state concept.
“Because we’ve got, you know, WA versus Victoria, but we are a national code, so are there different ways that we can play representative football?
“I know the South Australians are really keen to get involved. We’ve also got over 50 elite players at our level for New South Wales, ACT, so it’s more about how it might look in the future.”
Dillon said the build-up in Perth had shown that fans were willing to buy into the concept if the best footballers wanted to play.
“Every single player who was asked, they were queued up wanting to play,” he said.
“We want to get through tonight, but the momentum behind representative footy is real.
“I think it’d be great to also see something similar in (AFL) W. But we’ll work through that in the aftermath of the game.”
Victorian coach Chris Scott is also a convert.
“I suspect that after Saturday night there will be a burning desire to do it again,” he said.
“I’d be staggered if some of the great players in the comp who are aligned with South Australia or the Allies team won’t be beating down the door to at least have two games next year.”
Scott, Cox downplay fears coaches will use Origin for recruiting
By Danny Russell
Chris Scott has declared that AFL clubs have been speaking to rival players for years in response to claims he will use his time as Victorian coach to form connections with potential Geelong recruits.
Scott said there was as much chance he would turn players off as he would be to win them over while he was embedded as a State Of Origin leader in Perth.
Chris Scott surrounded by his star-studded Victorian line-up.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
The AFL decision to name Scott and Dean Cox as State Of Origin coaches this week drew criticism from Ken Hinkley, who labelled it an unfair advantage.
“This is a great opportunity for a coach to create a relationship with a player they may or may not be looking at,” Hinkley told SEN radio.
Scott said he had not heard the Hinkley interview nor his suggestion that State Of Origin should be overseen by neutral coaches not aligned to a club.
“I would like to think that we, at Geelong at least, have been a little, and I think every club’s hit there now, but we’re a little bit more realistic than has been publicly acknowledged over the last decade,” Scott said on Friday.
Good evening
G’day all. I’m Roy Ward and welcome to our first AFL live blog of 2026 as we take you through all the action and reactions from the state of origin clash between Victoria and Western Australia.
We will also have Danny Russell in Perth firing away after an exceptional week of reporting on the lead up to this match.
First bounce is due at 7.40pm AEDT or 4.40pm in the West.
Enjoy the evening to come.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
