Why every footballer should dream to wear SA jumper
TIMES have changed and the AFL has made state games less relevant. But outside the grand final, representing the state remains the pinnacle moment in any season for players, writes Chris McDermott.
Chris McDermott
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STATE football — be it State-of-Origin for AFL or simply state versus state at every other level — should be the pinnacle moment in any season for every player.
Only the grand final is a more important match, but it is not on offer to every player.
This is why every footballer can — and should — dream to wear a state jumper.
For the Victorians, they seem to stand taller and bolder when put in their navy blue jumper. And there was nothing better for a South Australian to put on our red jersey and put a dent in that “Big White V” ... as we did quite well in State-of-Origin on Tuesday nights in May at Football Park.
Those games — with lockout crowds on a work night — created memories for life ... and not just the players.
Only one result was more satisfying than beating the Victorian State team at home — doing it at the MCG.
And when the Victorians did not want to play — as was the case during the 1970s — there were our other traditional rivals, Western Australia. The best way to sum up the Sandgropers was think of them as “fast and furious” or “brilliant and magical”. And never to underestimate them, particularly on the vast and sandy running decks in Perth.
State football found a superb theme — State-of-Origin — in 1979 after we had endured the farcical note of watching South Australians (such as Malcolm Blight) captain Victoria. The Origin concept meant SA’s best players played in red — as they should.
There are superb memories of how SA stood up as Australia’s best in the 1980s and 1990s as the game was being changed with a national competition.
And a walk along the history windows at Adelaide Oval in the Riverbank Stand will forever remind us of how blessed we were, both on and off the field, to stand up for SA’s football pride.
The roll call reads as the who’s who of football — Max Basheer, Leigh Whicker, Graham Cornes, Russell Ebert, John Halbert, Neil Kerley, Neil Balme (even though he was a Western Australian), Jack Cahill, the great Michael Taylor, Michael Aish, Bruce Lindsay, Stephen Kernahan, Garry McIntosh ...
They all made that SA state jumper carry greater respect and hours.
But times have changed.
Unlike cricket, Australian football has not found a way to reinvent the state v state battle while developing a meaningful national club competition from which the AFL premiership is the greatest prize in the game.
The AFL rules. The state leagues are left in Big Brother’s shadow — and some are starving of oxygen to put together a decent competition let alone a representative team.
State games have fallen away in relevance to the fans. And we have reached the concerning point of needing to put this year’s SA-WA State game on the “curtain-raiser” timeslot to the Power-Crows Showdown at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
Let’s hope the crowd turns up early to give its support. The players deserve such. Each of them has worked hard to earn this honour.
And there is state pride to hold up in this most meaningful part of Australian football history and culture.
Long may it continue.
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