And I fancy I’m not alone in suggesting that’s a shame. Seeing the best play the best has a genuine appeal.
The crowd of almost 70,000 which attended the last semblance of a State of Origin game, when Victoria played the Dream Team at the AFL’s Hall of Fame Tribute game in 2008, suggests there’s some interest in the concept too.
Of course, that was a one-off game and a special occasion, so it’s hard to read too much into the figure especially when you remember dwindling crowd numbers were one of the reasons for State of Origin’s demise during the 90s.
One of the other reasons for State of Origin slipping off the radar for the AFL was the regularity of players opting to pull out of the series, putting their club’s interests first. Every year, there were droves of star players pulling out due to niggles, complaints or whatever excuse they could find.
You can understand players doing that, particularly given the modern emphasis placed on having a bye. An extra week’s rest is priceless.
From afar it appeared the pride in wearing the state jumper had worn thin to the players. The novelty had worn off. Of course, they were being asked to do it year after year which is one of the major issues with the old format.
So with that in mind it was refreshing to hear comments from Carlton and Collingwood captains Chris Judd and Nick Maxwell before last season that they wanted the State of Origin brought back.
To put it into context, the Victorian pair said they’d like to see the State of Origin replace the NAB Cup during the pre-season. They both argued players would want to play in order to gain match fitness prior to the AFL season.
It wasn’t a bad suggestion but it hardly prompted the AFL into action. In fact AFL House have been quiet on State of Origin footy for some time.
Years in fact.
It makes you wonder whether AFL chief executive officer Andrew Demetriou, who has held his post since the early noughties (not long after State of Origin disappeared), has any interest in reviving the concept.
It’s curious that during his tenure as AFL CEO the International Rules series against Ireland has been a regular fixture yet State of Origin has fallen by the wayside.
Demetriou has previously cited convincing players to compete in the State of Origin as the greatest barrier to its success. Yet the International Rules series, played after the AFL season, has managed to attract some of the best talent along with crowds which State of Origin hadn’t seen since the 80s.
And the 80s were all about South Australia and West Australia trying to beat Victoria. The concept had a narrative which captured the imagination of the public.
That was until the VFL went national and the AFL fulfilled that state-versus-state rivalry on a regular basis with club footy rendering State of Origin footy redundant.
It’s in this context that I look at rugby league’s Queensland versus New South Wales rivalry with envy.
The crowds which attend the International Rules games may offer hope to a successful Aussie Rules State of Origin series, perhaps played after the AFL season as a triennial or quadrennial event, but the Australia-Ireland series lacks the genuine passion which make you look forward to it as an event.
It’s more a novelty than anything else.
It’s an oft made point that rugby league’s State of Origin has something special going for it and the build-up this week to the game, which is still over a week away, shows the passion it stirs in the two states.
There’s plenty at stake for Queensland and New South Wales league fans.
Rugby league’s example just goes to show if the AFL is to revive State of Origin it needs to find a narrative to make the concept mean something to people.
Otherwise, however fancy the format, it won’t capture the imagination of the public and the players and eventually it’ll die away again.
Sherrin-Burley-Faulkner
Guest
There aint many other options !, i am quite sure that ACT juniors would like to play for the ACT, and seeing that SoO is the pinnacle of the sport, that anyone remotely interested in RL will be watching.
Jaceman
Guest
My last random post on a related issue, Now that Fairfax (losing money quick) is begging News to share their printing facilities, do you think there will no more articles in Fairfaxes SMH by Roy Masters stating that News should pay more for NRL?
Jaceman
Guest
Sean, Perhaps ACT juniors are taking the money for the game, picking up bonuses in their contract and then playing for Australia (as they have no other avenue for representative football. No incentive. If Victoria starts producing high quality NRL players, how are they going to get a look in to the Australian side (although they will undoubtedly opt to play for NZ). As SBF says, ACT is represented in every other sport as themselves or joined with NSW (and acknowledged as so). Yet this (and no other sport) is specifically called State of origin. You cant see the absurdity in that. Aside from all the other anomalies (Inglis, carroll etc) with flags of convenience everything is fine. The Osbournes had good ratings in the ACT too - didnt mean it was culturally uplifting... By the way there is a Canbera (and region) junior Rugby league where presumably 16 year olds get their start and qualification. http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?c=7-1084-0-0-0.
Bayman
Guest
Qld, I don't recall mentioning Voss - but now that you mention him...... The point still holds true. Thirty, forty years ago virtually no Queensland (born or bred - doesn't matter) footballers. Today, dozens. Tomorrow, truck loads. As inevitable as night following day. Likewise NSW.
Sean Fagan
Guest
@ Sherrin-Burley-Faulkner - yes, you're right - ACT juniors are declining to play for the Blues when selected and the Origin tv ratings in the ACT are zero.
Bayman
Guest
GoGWS, I think I probably go a bit further back than you and I do think so. In fact, I know so. However, check it for yourself by all means. When you were growing up in the 70s and 80s you should have taken the time to read a little footy history - especially of your own home league.
Sherrin-Burley-Faulkner
Guest
Sean Fagan said "No one’s made an issue of the NSW/ACT matter as no one else is bothered by it." Really !, i guess you have never lived in Canberra then, it's a bit of a joke.
Sean Fagan
Guest
@ Jaceman - I stand by what I wrote - Darren Clark never played first grade in a NSWRL (now NRL) premiership game - pre season games were on tv and presumably that is what you recall. No one's made an issue of the NSW/ACT matter as no one else is bothered by it. RL in the ACT falls under the NSWRL - they are and always have been NSW Blues juniors.
Queensland's game is rugby league
Guest
If that's the case then the New Zealanders who grew up playing rugby league under the Victorian system shouldn't be discounted.
Sherrin-Burley-Faulkner
Guest
Over 50 Qlders on AFL club lists, Drummond (when fit) is possibly the best kick of a football going around, plenty of QLD talent.
Sherrin-Burley-Faulkner
Guest
Please dont bring Adrian Barich into this !!, all a publicity stunt, and Barich was not the greatest footballer going around, and he was also from Marist bros Canberra.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
QGIRL elbusto was trying to be too clever by half. He's having a bit of joke.
Queensland's game is rugby league
Guest
That IS the perception of rugby league. Journalists were ridiculing the RLWC in 2008. None of them knew what to say when New Zealand won! More flak was thrown at the international game during last year's Four Nations. The same would happen in Aussie rules if it were to introduce a 6 state competition. I still think it would be good for Aussie rules to bring in a 6 state competition at the end of the season. It would give the sport a higher profile. There may never be a meaningful international competition in Aussie rules for Australia to compete in, but a state-based competition is attainable.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
You only really learn to play footy properly in your teenage years, so for mine, both Voss and Riewoldt learned their footy in Queensland - the big advantage they would have had is is having a family that lived and breathed aussie rules, and a dad who probably kicked a footy with them.
Queensland's game is rugby league
Guest
Since when did Wally Lewis and Mathew Johns play in the AFL? They might have played Aussie rules in a junior competition when they were young, but that's a whole different level to first-grade. There are a couple of players in the AFL who grew up playing rugby league. Players like Merrit and Gary Jack's son are an example. They never made it big in rugby league but have done alright in Aussie rules. Back in the 1990's there was a guy who made it to the big time in the AFL with the West Coast Eagles. When he signed with the Western Reds he couldn't make it into the first-grade team.
Queensland's game is rugby league
Guest
Riewoldt is a Tasmanian. He moved to Queensland when he was either 9 or 10. That hardly makes a born-and-bred Queenslander. Michael Voss is a Victorian who moved to Queensland at a similar age. Hardly makes him a born-and-bred Queenslander. Jason Dunstall retired in the 1990's. He was a born-and-bred Queenslander. How come a born-and-bred Queenslander hasn't made it big in the AFL since then? All Queensland has produced over the last 20 years is average players who go on to play average roles at the Lions. You only have to look at how poorly the Lions fare when their big-name Victorian players are injured to see I'm right.
Sherrin-Burley-Faulkner
Guest
Yep, your reasoning most likely is correct, most other representative sports have separate ACT teams, interestingly the Australian football team that plays in the Australian under 18 champs is called NSW/ACT. In previous years ACT has had it's own team in the under 18's.
Jaceman
Guest
It was 13 a side, it was on Nine because they were trumpeting the fact and interviewed after the game because he was sick of competing against steroid monsters from the eastern block which was ironic considering NRL's problems with steroids later. A link to balmain past players would solve it. Let me make this simple - its SOO and ACT is not part of NSW. They should change the name if nothing else...No-one's made an issue because its in their interests in the code wars that ACT is represented otherwise they couldnt represent. I dont have an issue with them playing its just that they should call it something else.
Sean Fagan
Guest
Darren Clark never played first grade for Balmain. It presumably was a pre season 7s or Tooheys Cup game you have in mind.
Sean Fagan
Guest
@ Jaceman. I didn't devise the Origin qualification rules, nor am I saying there have not been anomalies such as Inglis. Inglis was aligned by the QRL based upon what they and he believed was their entitlement under the rules to do, and were not challenged by the NSWRL when they did. I never asserted that where the Raiders played was the reason their juniors play Origin for NSW - I merely pointed out that for their first decade the Raiders were called Canberra but were based and played in NSW. The fact that ACT juniors play Origin for NSW is what it is - no one has ever pretended it be otherwise and in 30 years of Origin its barely rated a ripple of concern to anyone. Moreover, RL in the ACT falls under the NSW Country RL which is under the NSWRL. State of Origin is played by the representative team of NSWRL against the representative team of the QRL. Federal/state/territory geographic or electoral borders are not the criteria. In other words, the ACT area is part of the NSWRL area and anyone playing their first football at 16 in that area would qualify for the NSWRL's Blues Origin team.