Hopefully lots of people like me think it is time for State of Origin to get another run!
I have just got Adobe Illustrator so have been playing around with it and tried making some guernseys for a State of Origin Competition. However, I got sidetracked and ended up putting more time into teams lineups and probably went over the top making Wikipedia style information pages haha.
Anyway this is some of what i've done so far ... If anyone has any suggestions on the team lineups, guernseys or anything else!
TEAMS
In the past State of Origin has been exclusive to the 3 tradional AFL states plus the Allies. With the league expanding I went with 8 teams.
When you get to the team lineups you'll see the International team has a few ring-ins. So, until they can field a team (hopefully in the next 10 years or so) they would become a "bye" in the first round for the previous State of Origin Champion/Number 1 Seed (with the international players being eligable to play for the team which represents the state they originally moved to in Australia). I also combined the Northern Territory and the ACT to make up the Territory team with the other option having a Northern Territory team and combine the ACT into New South Wales as I think they do in the junior state teams, but I liked the idea of a Territory team I think.
Also, i'm not sure on the rules for eligibility for which state you represent. I think in NRL it's where you played your first Division 1 game, for the AFL i'm not so sure. Anyway, i've tried to put the players in teams simply where they have spent the majority of their growing up years (ages 1-18). If a player has no significant majority of time in one state ... e.g. 10 years in NT, 8 years in SA ... the player chooses which state he wants to play for, so some I just guessed and threw them in a team.
DRAW / SCHEDULE
With clubs seeming to not want the return of State of Origin I think it would be good for it to be reintroduced every four years like the Olympics/World Cup. That way over a decent AFL players career we would get to see our favourite players represent their state 2, 3, maybe even 4 times. The format is a 3 round knockout tournament (Quaterfinals, Semifinals, Final). The AFL schedule would need to be altered in a State of Origin year as three weeks need to be set aside. Some ideas are a month break half way through the season. Playing the Competition during the pre-season or post-season. Or the Competition could be spread over the season with the Quater Finals played in the pre-season, Semi Finals in a mid-season break and the Final acouple of weeks after the AFL Grand Final. Unlikely I know, but just some thoughts!
I'll post what i've done below ... Again any ideas/help would be great! The line ups aren't perfect and I need to have another go at the guernseys, especially WA and Queensland. I've pretty much just ripped off the traditional styles and changed the colours ... and still need to come up with an idea for the International team. I was thinking just the AFL colours of blue red and white, but not too sure yet.
