My Two Cents: The AFL needs to bite the bullet and revive State of Origin football | Andrew Capel
An MCG full of screaming rugby league fans will tell a sorry tale about what was once the pinnacle of Aussie rules football, writes Andrew Capel.
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Rozee versus Butters, Horne-Francis opposed to Houston and Dawson matched against Soligo.
I’d like to see that.
Melbourne great Garry Lyon is right – State of Origin football should be returned to the AFL calendar.
AFL clubs and their coaches won’t want it.
They will put it in the too hard basket and fear injuries to key players.
But the fans deserve it and some players will covet it.
As the NRL prepares for its annual New South Wales v Queensland State of Origin series, which will include a game at the MCG on June 26, the AFL fixture begins a month where each club will have a bye.
TELL US WHY IN THE COMMENTS
Lyon labelled the fact that State of Origin football has been abandoned since 1999 as a “disgrace’’, saying young guns like Port Adelaide’s Zak Butters, Collingwood’s Nick Daicos and emerging West Coast star Harley Reid should be donning Victorian jumpers.
“It is an unmitigated disgrace that we don’t have State of Origin football,” Lyon said on SEN.
“I know people say, ‘you’re flogging a dead horse’, but it’s an out and out disgrace that we don’t have it. I’m embarrassed that we don’t.
“We gave it up, we ceded control of the golden ticket and now they’re going to wander into our town in the middle of the football season and have 95,000 people watching their State of Origin while we play tiddlywinks in the corner.”
True AFL State of Origin hasn’t been played since 1999 when Victoria defeated South Australia in the wet at the MCG by 54 points, with VFL-AFL games record holder Brent Harvey best-afield with five goals.
AFL clubs have pushed back against the concept as they focus solely on winning a premiership and avoiding a state game where their players could get injured.
But it is a very narrow-minded view, as Queensland NRL Origin coach Billy Slater noted when he said “the game owns the players”.
Lyon, who captained Victoria in 1994, said AFL clubs needed to “look beyond” their own ambitions and “grow the game’’.
However Melbourne premiership coach Simon Goodwin, a Croweater and dual premiership Crow as a player who played one Origin game for SA in 1998, believes the AFL has outgrown state football.
He claimed the game had “evolved’’ to such an extent that it could no longer be fitted into the fixture.
“As we have progressed over the past 20 or 30 years, we have moved into a different type of game where it’s a national competition, with teams from every state involved and we have increased the length of our season,’’ he said.
“The devil is in the detail with a concept like that but we play so much footy now and the season goes for so long.’’
Again, it is a narrow-minded view.
AFL clubs are happy to rip players out of state league competitions like the SANFL in the mid-season rookie draft – decisions that alter seasons and could cost a SANFL club a flag – but they don’t want to release their own players for a one-off game.
And that’s all it would need to be.
To add some perspective, the world’s leading soccer leagues let their players go away mid-season to play international representative matches.
State of Origin football would only need to be played over one weekend a season.
Four teams – SA, Victoria, Western Australia and the Allies – could each play one game a year on a rotational basis.
One year the Croweaters can take on the Vics and the Sandgropers the Allies. The next it can be SA against WA or the Allies and so on.
The result would be fans getting to see their state’s best talent play together while it would include some mouth-watering personal match-ups.
Imagine watching Power captain Connor Rozee going head-to-head with his club teammate and great mate Butters in the centre square in an SA-Vic clash.
And I’m sure Adelaide fans wouldn’t mind seeing their skipper Jordan Dawson ply his trade against the club’s rising star Jake Soligo.
Other Croweaters at interstate clubs that SA fans would love to see play in the same side, alongside Crows excitement machine Izak Rankine, include Brisbane’s dual Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale, Hawthorn rising star Will Day and exciting forwards Jack Lukosius (Gold Coast) and Will Hayward (Sydney).
It makes too much sense for the AFL to ignore the concept completely.
The SANFL has played – and won – two state league interstate clashes against the VFL and WAFL this season and I’m sure dual Fos Williams Medallist, Central District’s Jez McLennan, spoke for most of his SA teammates when he said wearing the red state guernsey was like putting on a “Superman suit’’.
“I love representing my state, I’m a proud South Australian and every time I represent my state I give everything I’ve got and have a lot of fun doing it,’’ said McLennan, who is a strong contender to be selected in Wednesday’s mid-season draft.
One of SA’s greatest State of Origin players, dual Magarey Medallist and former Crow Andrew Jarman, described the demise of state footy as “disrespectful’’ and said it was a “no-brainer’’ that it should be revived.
“What the AFL has done over the journey is disrespect this wonderful event, State of Origin football,’’ said Jarman, who won a record five Fos Williams Medals as SA’s best player in state games.
“State footy’s the best, the pinnacle and meant everything to me.
“Having the best players on earth playing against each other is a no-brainer, even if it’s only every couple of years.
“It absolutely should happen and I feel apologetic to our young men who deserve the chance to proudly wear the South Australian, Victorian, Western Australian jumper, the other states as well, who are being denied that opportunity.
“I’m sure the AFL could find room in its calendar if it wanted to.’’
It’s time to make it happen.
Possible 2025 South Australian State of Origin team
F: Jack Lukosius (GC), Darcy Fogarty (Adel), Tyson Stengle (Geel)
HF: Izak Rankine (Adel), Riley Thilthorpe (Adel), Will Hayward (Syd)
C: Will Day (Haw), Connor Rozee (PA), Jordan Dawson (Adel)
HB: Mason Redman (Ess), Charlie Ballard (GC), Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (SK)
B: Max Michalanney (Adel), Callum Wilkie (SK), Brennan Cox (Frem)
R: Brodie Grundy (Syd), Jason Horne-Francis (PA), Lachie Neale (Bris)
INT: Rory Laird (Adel), Alex Neal-Bullen (Melb), Mitch Hinge (Adel), Harrison Petty (Melb), James Aish (Frem)
NUMBERS GAME
99
Points that Adelaide defeated West Coast by in Round 11 – the second biggest win of 2024, behind Brisbane’s 119-point thrashing of Richmond.
259
Games Ken Hinkley has coached at Port Adelaide – the most in VFL-AFL history without a grand final appearance.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“I often talk about learning from wins and losses, but this is one where we can go back and look at some really positive moments and individual acts.’’ – Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks after the 99-point win against the Eagles.
“You can’t keep putting us on hold like a phone call and think that’s okay.’’– Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley on the AFL’s lack of urgency on key issues facing the game.
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