Do you want to see a return of State of Origin and if so, when?

[goswannie14]

Originally posted by hammo
I am not precisely sure why it works in league and not AFL but here are a few guesses:

* NRL is just 2 states NSW vs QLD whereas AFL has many states and the only established rivalry is VIC vs SA - this was strongest when the VFL and SANFL were up against each other and rich VFL clubs were poaching SA players.

That's partially correct, but the Sandgropers were also part of the mix, so it has always been a three way rivalry. Before SOO it was interstate games with the state where you were playing as being the team you played for, that was interspersed with the "Club championships" were the premiers from the three states played a carnival. These came to an abrupt end after Mal Brown went berzerk and flattened about 3 or 4 Carlton players in 30 seconds in the final one year.

[Norris Lurker]

There are plans for a one-off State of Origin in 2008. Mainly because it's an exceptionally early Easter that year, and the AFL want to schedule an opening round Easter Monday blockbuster but to do that would leave an extra week in the season.

Will it work? I doubt it. Expect an epidemic of dubious injuries that force most of the top players to pull out. And anyone with even the slightest niggle would sit out of an Origin game rather than miss a club game.
Totally different to the NRL, where players selected for the Origin game are forced to sit out of their club's game the week before to attend a training camp. That would be unthinkable in AFL.

[Damien]

Originally posted by Norris Lurker
There are plans for a one-off State of Origin in 2008. Mainly because it's an exceptionally early Easter that year, and the AFL want to schedule an opening round Easter Monday blockbuster but to do that would leave an extra week in the season.

Will it work? I doubt it. Expect an epidemic of dubious injuries that force most of the top players to pull out. And anyone with even the slightest niggle would sit out of an Origin game rather than miss a club game.
Totally different to the NRL, where players selected for the Origin game are forced to sit out of their club's game the week before to attend a training camp. That would be unthinkable in AFL.

Might work, they are celebrating 150 years of football next year, so it all depends on how it is marketed I guess and whether the best players see it as a once off opportunity.

[SimonH]

I'm all for it. The real question/difficulty arises from the question of whether it should be a one-off match (if so, who against whom?) or done in a carnival.

Originally posted by Sanecow
I'm all for SOO that doesn't involve a retarded "Allies" team.

There's no longer any need for an Allies team IMO, although if SOO was done through a pre-season carnival it would be more realistic if it were played in 2 divisions (which it often was in days of yore), with SA, WA and Vic in Div 1; and NT, NSW/ACT (would have to field a combined team to be competitive IMO), Qld and Tas in Div 2.

If the winner of Div 2 got to challenge the bottom-finisher in Div 1 for promotion to the next year's carnival, that match would be an interesting exercise in the development of the game-- in 2008 Qld (presuming they won Div 2) would probably get pumped by the worst of SA/WA/Vic; but by 2013, they'd be a fair chance of actually knocking over one of the 'old powers'. Which would be a huge feather in the cap of the development of the game as the truly national football.

The professional full-time nature of AFL these days (not to mention issues of native talent) means that a rep team would have to be composed pretty-much entirely of AFL-listed players to be competitive. There are enough Qld and NSW/ACT players on AFL lists now to make up a team. I'd be fairly confident that there are enough Tasmanians; NT would fall a little short, but being able to call on the likes of McLeod and Buckley would mean they could make up for quantity with quality.

Playing SOO for your state should be the pinnacle of Aussie rules footy (obviously the IR series ain't Aussie rules). With the greatest of respect for their passion, people are kidding themselves about the nature of the modern comp and the origin of their players if they think that the Clones 'represent' SA, the Weagles 'represent' WA and so forth.

The SA, WA and Vic squads for a SOO carnival would be absolutely red-hot squads. A lot of high-quality players would miss out. The real issue is timing; too many SOO games have been played at a time of the year when no-one cares about footy. A SOO carnival would have to be at the start of the season (and involve abandoning or severely modifying the NAB Cup; no bad thing). However, a one-off SOO match (or simultaneous 3 or 4 of them) should be played in the middle of the year when interest in the game generally is at a fever pitch, and there's a week's break from club commitments.

Of course, you'll always get the 'what if someone suffers a career-ending injury?' whingers. There are no doubt club fans in other codes who express the same opinions about rugby league SOO, World Cup soccer, Wallabies' rugby internationals, et al. There might even be club cricket afficionadoes who get the pips when their favourite player gets selected for the state team.

Rep footy exists; it exists at a higher level than club footy; the best players will be asked to play in it; and if they've got their heads screwed on right, they should be itching to play in it. Mature fans and clubs just deal with those realities, as a fact of life.