News "State of Origin is back" - Eddie McGuire, March 2025

[Underarm]

And also making sure that on the odd occasion that someone like Heeney, Dunstall, Rioli, Riewoldt is a star of the AFL, they get to actually play.

But who are they going to play?

Who's excited about Riewoldt vs a NSW side that was probably weaker than Sydney at the time.

 

[iameviljez]

Plenty of training is done independent of game plans and they have plenty of time otherwise to gel with team mates.
SOO would be an incentive optimize fitness. You must be a big fan of the Community Series I guess.

If you play State of Origin before Round 1, everyone will treat it as a bit of a pre-season giggle.

 

[iameviljez]

But who are they going to play?

Who's excited about Riewoldt vs a NSW side that was probably weaker than Sydney at the time.

Which is exactly why The Allies were created as an amalgam of Tas, QLD, NSW/ACT, NT.

 

[Bostonian]

Promotes the game (which benefits all clubs...even beyond AFL level). Think you will get bigger crowd and TV ratings for SOO than the Community Series...that ultimately benefits all clubs.

The game doesn't need promoting. If someone doesn't know what AFL is in 2025 they never will.

The league itself is the promotion. Not some mickey mouse meaningless game.

 

[Pistol Night]

The game doesn't need promoting. If someone doesn't know what AFL is in 2025 they never will.

The league itself is the promotion. Not some mickey mouse meaningless game.

Can you tell Dil this so he doesn't whore us out again for opening round next year

 

[JackFlash]

LOL.

Who won it 5 years ago? They don't even know that in NSW! But they know who won the orgin series!

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Who won it 5 years ago? They don't even know that in NSW! But they know who won the orgin series!

You’ve done a survey have you? Show us your methodology and we can assess it.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

The game doesn't need promoting. If someone doesn't know what AFL is in 2025 they never will.

The league itself is the promotion. Not some mickey mouse meaningless game.

(Notwithstanding the astonishing number of BF posters who refer to it as “rugby”) Everyone knows what NRL is, and yet SoO just gets bigger and bigger.

(I’m not at all convinced AFL SoO would work, but I think some of the arguments against it are very outmoded, and if it did work, it could be absolutely massive.)

 

[JackFlash]

You’ve done a survey have you? Show us your methodology and we can assess it.

If the average NRL fan can walk in a straight line may be we could ask some? If you asked 100 of them the question, my bet is 75% of them wouldn't know and the other 25% wouldn't understand the question.

 

[nobbyiscool]

We need to let this go. It's over. Especially if the best we can do for it is play it as a pre-season match.

We also saw what it was 5 years ago. It was bruise free rubbish that more closely resembled AFLX than AFL, I don't have any desire to see that again.

 

[Bjo187]

Community series has a club purpose. SOO has zero purpose to clubs. ZERO.

I saw you in the other thread carrying on about nsw and qld, you really don't care for the growth of the game at all do you? It always surprises me to see footy fans that only care about their club and not the actual health and growth of the sport as a whole.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

If the average NRL fan can walk in a straight line may be we could ask some? If you asked 100 of them the question, my bet is 75% of them wouldn't know and the other 25% wouldn't understand the question.

OK so you’re basically just releasing the echoes inside your head. Good to know.

 

[Cmarsh]

Isn't the whole idea just fundamentally racist? The uncomfortable reality that if you have an exclusively indigenous team, we also have a set of exclusively non-indigenous teams. It's like the sort of thing that happened in the 1870s - can't believe it's even being suggested.

Where else does it happen? Can you imagine the NBA coming up with an idea for a blacks v whites game? An Africans v the rest EPL exhibition game?

Not everything has to be viewed through a lens adjudging if it would be acceptable for Americans or not.

 

[Speck]

Feels like the Freo v Indigenous game was a bit of a test case for this.

I'm not sure it would ever be taken seriously, so I think pre-season is the perfect place for it. One game per year with a rotating opponent based on the result the previous year. It might be a bit bruise free but after a long off season I can see everyone getting into it as the first footy for the year.

I think you can run seperate teams for VIC, SA, WA, NSW/ACT and QLD without too many issues. They'll all be competitive enough. You could probably get away with a combined QLD/NT side. Tassie is a bit of a problem and wouldn't be competitive at this stage. You could either combine this with VIC (probably sacrilegious) or have some very loose rules around those players being eligible for other states if they've ever lived elsewhere/where they were drafted to.

Not really sold on having the Indigenous team seperate but you just know it will be done.

So if it was: VIC/TAS, SA, WA, NSW/ACT, QLD/NT, Indigenous All Stars (IAS)

Each year you have a game between VIC, SA and WA. Then the other two games are a combination between the rest.

Example being...

Season 1: VIC v SA, WA v NSW/ACT, QLD/NT v IAS
Season 2: VIC v WA, SA v IAS, NSW/ACT v QLD/NT
Season 3: SA v WA, VIC v QLD/NT, IAS v NSW/ACT
and so on

We need to keep it not serious. If it develops into more then great.

 

[My_Username]

As always, you'll have lots of people/groups saying what a great idea it is.

Then when you get to the nitty gritty of it, the clubs wont want their players to play, and a lot of the players will give in to the pressure from the clubs (who are paying them a lot of money after all) and find that their niggling injuries are flaring up that week.

Clubs with lots of 'local' players will be especially resistant. (one of the reasons SOO died was that WCE realised they had about half their team playing and risking injury for a game that didn't benefit them at all). These days, it'll especially apply to NSW/QLD clubs (but also WA/SA). Tas will probably be a nightmare.

Expect WA/SA players to all be keen for matches against Vic, but many will be curiously absent for other games.

And of course, the fans/sponsors/broadcasters will only care about the Vic vs <whoever> match, with the other games only barely registering....but of course, every state (and probably territory) will demand the right to field their own team, even if they have to play top up players from 2nd/3rd tier leagues, and of course, they'll all have to have their matches broadcast nationally.

For the first year or two, it might be a success, but in time, it'll flop.

 

[PiesUserName]

Everyone agrees that the State of Origin won't have the passion it needs or used to have. It is too risky to have the marquee players playing in it. So instead of that, I would prefer the State of Origin to happen with all the state players (VFL, SANF, WAFL etc).
Have a traditional bye round for all AFL clubs and State of Origin can be played with the state players. Give them the spotlight for Origin weekend.
They will play with heart and it would be the biggest game some of them will ever play in. It gives them a chance to stand out and impress one of the AFL clubs, especially leading into mid season drafts.

 

[iameviljez]

Everyone agrees that the State of Origin won't have the passion it needs or used to have. It is too risky to have the marquee players playing in it. So instead of that, I would prefer the State of Origin to happen with all the state players (VFL, SANF, WAFL etc).
Have a traditional bye round for all AFL clubs and State of Origin can be played with the state players. Give them the spotlight for Origin weekend.
They will play with heart and it would be the biggest game some of them will ever play in. It gives them a chance to stand out and impress one of the AFL clubs, especially leading into mid season drafts.

Erm, to give you some idea of how popular it is… this already happens.

 

[PiesUserName]

Erm, to give you some idea of how popular it is… this already happens.

Thanks, I just looked it up and seen that they will play during gather round, I didn't know they did it this year or last year lol.

I will tune in this year haha.

 

[Clark G]

It just won't work for all the same reasons it fizzled out last time and more.

- Players will resist from playing it, especially from the premiership window clubs, not wanting to risk injury

- VIC vs SA, VIC vs WA were good, but all other state games didn't draw much interest.

- Players who will play won't take it seriously. They're already pumping it up as "NBA allstar" like, but people tune into that for the tricks and dunks. Are we expecting this to be like the EJ Whitten game, just with fit blokes?

- The indigenous all-stars is a terrible idea and SA and WA will be the worst affected by this.

- Currently, Victoria would thrash all other teams by a minimum of 10 goals. SA didn't even have a player drafted from their state a few years ago.

I really don't see the point. Money could be spent elsewhere.

When did this happen?

 

[GC2015]

It just won't work for all the same reasons it fizzled out last time and more.

- Players will resist from playing it, especially from the premiership window clubs, not wanting to risk injury

- VIC vs SA, VIC vs WA were good, but all other state games didn't draw much interest.

- Players who will play won't take it seriously. They're already pumping it up as "NBA allstar" like, but people tune into that for the tricks and dunks. Are we expecting this to be like the EJ Whitten game, just with fit blokes?

- The indigenous all-stars is a terrible idea and SA and WA will be the worst affected by this.

- Currently, Victoria would thrash all other teams by a minimum of 10 goals. SA didn't even have a player drafted from their state a few years ago.

I really don't see the point. Money could be spent elsewhere.

People hated the idea of Gather Round and said it would never work when it was first announced and we know now that they were very clearly wrong because it's been a massive success. How about we try SoO in the very different footy climate that is the 2020s and see what happens before drawing a early conclusion like people did with Gather Round? Worst case scenario if it fails is it gets played once in 2026 and it doesn't get touched again for another 20+ years (if ever).

 

[Rabish Binney]

We need to let this go. It's over. Especially if the best we can do for it is play it as a pre-season match.

We also saw what it was 5 years ago. It was bruise free rubbish that more closely resembled AFLX than AFL, I don't have any desire to see that again.

Agree 100%

I'd love to see it come back (nothing better than SA vs Vic) but if they are going to do it, it needs to be fully supported by the clubs and not be a half arsed exercise put on by the AFL simply to say 'SOO is back'

I really doubt however that this will happen. It will be a diluted product somehow

Either stage it properly or don't have it at all.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

As always, you'll have lots of people/groups saying what a great idea it is.

Then when you get to the nitty gritty of it, the clubs wont want their players to play, and a lot of the players will give in to the pressure from the clubs (who are paying them a lot of money after all) and find that their niggling injuries are flaring up that week.

Clubs with lots of 'local' players will be especially resistant. (one of the reasons SOO died was that WCE realised they had about half their team playing and risking injury for a game that didn't benefit them at all). These days, it'll especially apply to NSW/QLD clubs (but also WA/SA). Tas will probably be a nightmare.

Expect WA/SA players to all be keen for matches against Vic, but many will be curiously absent for other games.

And of course, the fans/sponsors/broadcasters will only care about the Vic vs <whoever> match, with the other games only barely registering....but of course, every state (and probably territory) will demand the right to field their own team, even if they have to play top up players from 2nd/3rd tier leagues, and of course, they'll all have to have their matches broadcast nationally.

For the first year or two, it might be a success, but in time, it'll flop.

I agree the risk of injuries to players is the biggest issue, and not yet convinced there’s a way around it.

But I disagree there’d be no interest in anything except the Vic games. I reckon if they can pull it off, it’d set a lot of the country alight, and snooker the NRL SoO in the process.

 

[iameviljez]

People hated the idea of Gather Round and said it would never work when it was first announced and we know now that they were very clearly wrong because it's been a massive success. How about we try SoO in the very different footy climate that is the 2020s and see what happens before drawing an early conclusion like people did with Gather Round? Worst case scenario if it fails is it gets played once in 2026 and it doesn't get touched again for another 20+ years (if ever).

It’s not exactly another planet compared to the 90s.

Nothing has changed that makes SoO more likely to succeed. Arguably, it’s less.

 

[My_Username]

I agree the risk of injuries to players is the biggest issue, and not yet convinced there’s a way around it.

But I disagree there’d be no interest in anything except the Vic games. I reckon if they can pull it off, it’d set a lot of the country alight, and snooker the NRL SoO in the process.

Do you really think NSW v QLD will get high ratings, nationally?

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Do you really think NSW v QLD will get high ratings, nationally?

I think nationally it’d be nothing to sniff at, but in NSW and QLD, the biggest and the third biggest markets, it would be huge thanks to the pre-existing rivalry from the NRL SoO.