Credit: Getty Images/Richard Giliberto
State of Origin is the pinnacle of the NRL season and once captured the imagination of the Australian rules football-loving public in a similar way. But after the halcyon days of the ’80s and ’90s, it has died out.
It has had two reincarnations in the men’s competition – the Hall of Fame tribute match of 2008, remembered for Collingwood ruckman Josh Fraser seriously injuring his knee, and a bushfire appeal clash in 2020. But nothing has stuck.
Who would win?
Scroll down to see our men’s and women’s State of Origin teams, and vote on who would win.
When players were surveyed on the issue in 2018, 79 per cent supported the reintroduction of State of Origin football. The players’ association says greater thought could go into the idea once a new collective bargaining agreement has been finalised.
The AFLPA proposed a series in 2014, but it didn’t garner enough support.
Can it ever return?
Why has Origin survived in rugby league?
The three-match rugby league campaign, played each year, has remained so strong for so long, according to Melbourne Storm great and now Maroons coach Billy Slater, through pure passion .
“The Maroons were an inspiration to me when I was a kid, and they’re an inspiration to more than five million people up in Queensland,” Slater said in a conversation with AFL great Joel Selwood that was aired on Nine.
“Although the NRL is a professional business, players are a business now, I don’t think they’ve lost that passion on State of Origin.
Billy Slater celebrates a Queensland victory.Credit: Getty Images
“I just know what it means to our players. I know what it means to the people of our state. And whilst you’ve got that, you’ve still got the concept.”
Australian rules great Leigh Matthews said the rugby league series worked because it had the highest importance.
“It’s massive, it works too because everyone in that game accepts State of Origin over-ranks club level. For instance, you pull players out of club games to play State of Origin games and everyone is quite happy with that,” he said.
That only one of the NRL’s 17 teams – Melbourne Storm – is based outside of NSW or Queensland is seen by rugby league observers as adding to the intense rivalry between the states.
“It’s something instilled in you before you get to be a professional. It’s something that you grow up dreaming of, and wanting to do,” Slater said.
The case against a comeback
Collingwood coach Craig McRae, a proud South Australian who represented his state in the 1999 clash, questioned whether the origin of fervour of yesteryear could return.
“We have State of Origin every week now. I get the principle of it and how big it was,” he said.
“In South Australia, it was huge. We would all travel there, before the Crows. It was us versus them – Victoria, South Australia. I don’t know if it’s that much this time around. I think we play State of Origin every week.”
Paul Roos, a former Sydney and Melbourne coach who was a state stalwart in the 1980s and ’90s, doubts it will come back.
“As much as it would be a good spectacle, I don’t think it could replace anything we have at the moment,” Roos said.
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said State of Origin could help to grow the game. He said he enjoyed the concept “as a spectator”, but conceded the fear of injury was a factor. “I would love to see it, you would pack the MCG if you got full-bottle, both teams, but then you put on your club hat and say: ‘Do I want to risk [Patrick] Dangerfield, and all that?’ It’s [a] hard one, but it could be great to grow the game.”
The AFL said there had been no discussion on the possibility of Origin, in any format, returning.
The case for a comeback
West Coast premiership player Karl Langdon, who represented WA, said State of Origin would work if it was built up the right way.
“There can only be one team that wins the premiership every year, but there are plenty of great players who play their whole careers and never play in a flag, like Robert Harvey, Robbie Flower, but get to play for their state, where these young blokes never get to do it now,” Langdon said.
“What’s wrong with playing with the best against the best? One thing you know is if you build it up the right way, the way Ted Whitten and Malcolm Brown from our perspective here, you know you are going to get tribalism from each state to support the concept. You reward the players. There just needs to be that win-win from everyone involved. The only ones who might not necessarily win are the clubs if one of their players gets injured, but that requires an element of luck.”
Australian football hall-of-famer and former Victorian captain Simon Madden suggested the AFL fixture could be cut to 18 home-and-away games and byes when Tasmania is introduced, allowing for an in-season State of Origin carnival.
“You look at NFL college football, they have the normal season, and then they have specific games that are nothing to do with the season. They are marquee games,” he said.
Simon Madden thinks State of Origin could return mid-season.Credit: Getty Images
“I just think somewhere in the future, we can say, we have 19 teams, play once each, so the whole draw is even, and then we can have a couple of breaks through the year when we play these marquee games and have State of Origin round, or Victoria versus the rest, whatever. Who would have thought five years ago we would have had the Gather Round, and put every team in one city?
“Football is an entertainment, these bigger games are what people want.”
Heading into the 2020 match, Collingwood great Scott Pendlebury said if players and fans supported the State of Origin “then hopefully it’s something that can get up”, while Richmond star Jack Riewoldt suggested he could see a future for the concept.
Former Richmond coach Damien Hardwick, who represented Victoria as a player and guided Victoria in the bushfire relief game, said there was support for a return of a best-versus-the-best concept.
Damien Hardwick coached the Vics to success in the bushfire relief game in 2020.Credit: Getty Images
“I loved it [bushfire relief game] personally, and to be a part of it was great,” Hardwick said.
“I think the schedule is tough, but it was a great cause and a great game to be part of.
“Players would be open to the honour of playing in it, to get the Big V or the Tassie jumper or the South Australian or WA jumpers.
“It is really, really challenging to fit anything in, but I am sure there will be a time and place for it, but I am not sure where that fits at the moment.”
‘Everyone wants to play Victoria’
AFL players are largely supportive of reintroducing State of Origin football, but the format remains a point of debate.
While some current and former players favour the traditional format that made the concept so popular through the 1980s and early 1990s, others believe a one-off Victoria versus Dream Team concept – as adopted in the bushfire relief game in 2020 – would be the best way forward.
Matthews says deciding the competing teams is a key issue.
“The State of Origin works great in rugby league because you have only got the two states. But [in Australian rules] everyone wants to play Victoria. Where our sport has gone, the occasional State of Origin for some promotional reason is fine, but it’s always a problem, who is playing who,” said Matthews, who coached Victoria in ’97 and ’98.
Who would play?
Our experts have selected teams from current AFL lists, named below. In the men’s competition, where talent around the country is more developed, teams have been picked for Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and an Allies team that includes players from other states and territories – and around the world.
Vote below on which team you think would take the State of Origin crown.
‘Pay the players’
South Australian great Graham Cornes, who won nine of 11 origin matches as coach, including six of eight against Victoria, remembers the contests of the ’80s and ’90s uniting football fans across SA, Western Australia and Victoria. Cornes said the AFL would have to fiercely back the concept if it were to return.
“Can they do it again? They could only do it if the AFL really got behind it and forced it and took any interest in it away from the clubs and coaches, because that is what killed it in the end – clubs and coaches didn’t really want their players playing,” Cornes said.
Langdon said financial incentives would entice the best players to accept an invitation. He said the sport could also benefit financially, and it could add to broadcast rights fees.
“The actual matches themselves, if they wanted to reinvigorate it, what they could do is if they did like the NRL, and pay the players $30,000 I believe, it could well go the way of creating another form of income for not only the players but the game itself,” he said.
If there was strong support for the clash, players say fair financial compensation would be a formula similar to that used for the new Gather Round, where players shared in a set percentage of revenue from the game. They were paid on a pro rata basis, meaning that every player would get paid in proportion of his 2023 salary. Another option is a flat fee.
But Matthews said throwing money at players was not the answer.
“If you have to do that, why are you doing it?”
Matthews still feels there should be state-based recognition even if games aren’t played.
“What I do say is I still can’t understand why at the end of every year you don’t pick State of Origin teams for all the states, but certainly Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, so those guys get a state guernsey. They might not get to wear it in a game, but they actually get the state guernsey,” he said.
The women’s game
If Origin was reignited in the AFL, there could be support for a double header, with the men and AFLW women playing Origin games. The women had a one-off game in 2017, when Victoria, led by Daisy Pearce and coached by Debbie Lee, defeated the Allies by 97 points.
North Melbourne star Emma Kearney, who played in that match, would love to see more women’s state football in a Victoria against the rest format, but can see similar issues that led to its demise in the men’s game. She believes a post-season match would best suit due to doubts clubs would support a mid-season encounter for fear of injuries.
Victoria and the Allies met in an AFLW origin clash in 2017.Credit: Daniel Pockett
“Given our season is so short, I think it’s a great opportunity for the AFL to showcase some of the best players in the competition,” Kearney said. “As you’re trying to grow the audience, that’s a positive thing.”
Another leading female player, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the chances of AFLW state football being played regularly would diminish as the competition grew.
“The priority is more focused on playing for a premiership,” she said. “I don’t know if you’d see players being released. I think the perfect timing would be now – but would you get players released?”
In the women’s competition, where talent has had less time to develop, we have selected a Victorian team and an Allies team that includes players from the other Australian states and territories. It doesn’t include international players, although there is a proliferation of Irish talent in AFLW that deserves to be mentioned.
Vote below on which team you think would take the State of Origin crown.
Read part one of our two-part series, published on Tuesday, which looked at the demise of State of Origin in Australian rules football.
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