Interleague: AFL Victoria called on to bring representative games back

Some of the biggest names in country football are calling on AFL Victoria to resurrect a properly structured interleague competition.

A push is on to revive a properly structured interleague format to ensure hidden AFL draft gems don’t slip through the cracks and the best players in the bush can perform at the highest level possible.

Players haven’t had the opportunity to represent Victorian Country or play in a formal interleague series since before the Covid disruptions of 2020-21.

The Ovens and Murray and Goulburn Valley leagues will play for the second successive year on Saturday and Hampden and Ballarat will meet in July.

But other competitions are struggling to get interleague matches going again.

It has prompted calls from former representative players across the state for interleague football’s permanent reinstatement by governing body AFL Victoria.

Hampden’s Joe McLaren regularly represented Victorian Country during his career.

Koroit’s Joe McLaren, a regular Victorian Country player during his career, said modern day players deserved the same opportunities he had.

He cited the example of Isaac Smith, a multiple premiership player with Hawthorn and Norm Smith medallist at Geelong, as the “poster boy” of getting a shot at AFL from representing Victorian Country.

“A large percentage of players don’t get an opportunity to play AFL footy,” McLaren said.

“But Isaac Smith is the poster boy for the conversation.

“He got drafted out of a Vic Country carnival (in 2010) that he dominated with Peter Knights the coach.

“Look at his history now.”

Geelong’s Tom Stewart playing for Victoria Country in 2014 before being drafted to the Cats. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Tom Stewart, who played alongside Smith in the Cats’ flag last year, starred in the Geelong league for South Barwon and represented Victorian Country before he was drafted in 2016.

Wangaratta’s Joe Richards, who was drafted by Collingwood last year, starred for the O and M at Mooroopna last year.

Shane Field, a former Wimmera league player, selector and assistant coach, said representative football should return in some formal way.

“There is definitely a space for it and a lot of people want it to happen again,” he said.

“I don’t think we’re the only league to let it lapse.

“But all the best players in the league like to come together and test themselves.

“For those guys who don’t play finals it’s probably the best game of the year standard wise.”

The return of interleague gained strong backing in The Weekly Times’ country football survey conducted on the eve of the season.

Resurrection of the country championships won support from 78 per cent of survey respondents.

But AFL Victoria community football manager John O’Donohue said there was “less and less interest” in interleague football coming back in a structured way.

“We’re supportive of leagues playing, but the appetite has diminished over the past couple of years,” he said.

“The proposition of us bringing back 30 leagues playing like we had before has gone.

“That had gone pre-Covid.”

Isaac Smith was a Victorian Country representative in 2010 before being drafted to the AFL where he has played in premierships with Hawthorn and Geelong. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Shepparton’s Stephen Ash, who represented the GV and O and M in his glittering career, said a possible format could be for under-25 aged players who still harboured aspirations of playing at AFL level.

“It would give the young blokes the best chance to get to the next level,” he said.

“I think that could work because most of them would want to play.

“Being brutally honest the days of a carnival and how we used to do it are gone.

“I can’t ever see that coming back.”

The Gippsland league is playing an under-25s match on Saturday with one team made up of players from Bairnsdale, Maffra, Sale, Traralgon and Morwell and the other will draw on players from Moe, Leongatha, Wonthaggi, Drouin and Warragul.