Jones wants to help keep WAFL ahead of the packFriday, May 23, 2014 - 2:45 PM - by Chris Pike

JORDAN Jones is one of 15 players representing Western Australia for the first time on Saturday against the NEAFL at Blacktown in Sydney and the West Perth premiership player wants to help the WAFL continue to stamp itself as the premier competition outside the AFL.

The game will be held at Blacktown in Sydney and bouncedown will be at 12pm local time, and 10am WA time. The game will be broadcast on a live stream via the NEAFL website – www.neafl.com.au.

Jones is also one of seven West Perth players in the WAFL squad with Jay van Berlo the only Falcon to have played a State match before.

The 23-year-old is now in his third season at West Perth having spent three years previously with the West Coast Eagles in the AFL where he played two matches and when not there, racked up 47 matches with Peel Thunder in the WAFL.

He was outstanding mostly as a defender last year in West Perth's premiership side, but also has the versatility to go through the middle and be a strong contributor, and also go forward to be a goalkicker.

The 91-game WAFL star is now looking forward to representing WA for the first time and is even more passionate having heard from some past greats who have played for the Black Swans.

"At our jumper presentation on Wednesday a few ex-State representatives presented our jumpers like Steve Malaxos, Marty Atkins and Michael Broadbridge, and they gave an insight into what it was like for them to play State footy and how much it meant to them," Jones said.

"They really talked about the passion of the state and some of the stories they told like being told if they didn’t perform they would never play for WA again, that's how cut throat it was. I don’t think it's quite the same now, but the passion is still there and you want to represent your state, and we want the WAFL to be known as the best league in the country.

"Last year the boys knocked off the VFL and that was a bit of a scalp so this year is another challenge that we have to fight through to get a win and prove that we are the No. 1 competition in Australia."

Jones will be joined in the State game by West Perth teammates Shane Nelson, Jay van Berlo, Laine Rasmussen, Nick Rodda, Kody Manning and Chris Keunen with van Berlo the only one to have played for WA before.

All seven played in last year's premiership and Jones is looking forward to sharing the experience with them, and is particularly happy for veteran ruckman Keunen to now be leading the way in the middle for WA.

"The more players you get in from your club it shows the depth of our group and we are all looking forward to it," he said.

"Out of the seven of us, six of us are making our debuts for WA which is really positive for the group. Having seven guys there, shows that we have a lot of young talent and how good we are and how good we can be. Hopefully with such a young group we can be a real powerhouse over the next few years.

"It's great for the young guys, but for Keuns it is just fantastic. He works his butt off on the training track and he does everything right to get himself ready each week. It's a real credit to him. He has risen to all the challenges.

"There were a lot of them last year that he rose to and he was the No. 1 ruckman in the competition at some point this year, and he has started this season really well again. It's a fantastic credit to him and he will love the opportunity to play for WA."

Some of the West Perth players did line up at Blacktown in a Foxtel Cup game back in 2012 so the ground isn’t totally foreign to everyone in the WA team.

The NEAFL team isn’t completely unknown either with Jacob Derickx having played in last year's grand final for East Perth against West Perth while Ryan Brabazon played 36 matches for Claremont and two for WA in 2010 and 2011.

"A few of the boys have talked about the ground at Blacktown and when you think of a Sydney ground you think of a small and pokey kind of oval compared to a ground in Perth, but I think it's a reasonable sized ground. It doesn’t really matter, though, there will always be plenty of space on a footy field and I'm looking forward to getting out there," Jones said.

"Our opposition from the NEAFL is going to be very talented given it's NSW, Northern Territory, Queensland and the ACT all combined. They had quite a big group to pick from and there's a lot of ex-AFL players running around in that competition so I dare say they will be pretty talented, and skilful."