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SFA State of Origin
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THE RULES
Team selectionEach coach will get to select a 40-man squad to use across the State of Origin tournament. Why so large a squad, you may ask? Well, to make this competition realistic and able to be 'canonical' to the actual AFLTM competition, players will not allowed to play for their club sides and state sides on the same weekend. As State of Origin will run during AFLTM finals, this means that players from eliminated clubs will be available all tournament, but players from finals clubs will only become available once their team is eliminated. Due to fixturing constraints, I've had to hold the last round in the first week of the AFL finals, so although players from all AFLTM clubs will be available, only players participating in the AFL finals will be able to score, hence the 40-man squad.
Despite the obvious difference in quality and availability between AFLTM clubs and State of Origin sides, we'll be sticking to the 18-man line-up with 7 interchange players. I'll also stick to the AFLTM rule of 2 key forwards, 2 key defenders and 1 ruckman*, with eligibility for these positions according to this thread.
As mentioned earlier, you cannot name a player who is playing AFLTM on the same weekend. There won't be any penalties for incorrect naming of players; if I can catch it, I'll let the coach know and give them a chance to replace them, if not, it's as simple as bringing a player or two off the bench.
Please be realistic with your team suggestions. Name defenders at half back. Named forwards in the pocket. Name midfielder-forwards at half forward. It's tempting to beef up your score with extra midfielders as you can draw from so many more players but I will pull you up, if anything I'll be even more strict than fightingfury_88 as there's so many more players you can call up, leaving no excuses for poor selection.
You're allowed to select players on the basis of their Fantasy scores. Don't feel as if you should name a low or average scoring player because you think they'd play for the state IRL, this is the AFLTM State of Origin after all. If anything, please reward high scoring players this season, such as Ed Curnow or Tom Phillips.
I will let all coaches know when team selection is due in the coming weeks.
State eligibility
State of Origin eligibility revolves around where you played the majority of your football from the age of 13 to 18, not where you were born or where you were drafted, although often all three are the same. For example, Phil Davis was born in Canberra but played his junior footy in South Australia, and is therefore eligible for SA and not the Allies. Callum Sinclair was drafted from Subiaco, but played junior footy for Beaumaris in Victoria and would be eligible for Victoria.
In terms of having Victoria Country and Victoria Metro in the competition, as almost all Victorian players are drafted from the TAC Cup, it makes it easy to split. Players drafted from Sandringham, Oakleigh, Northern, Western, Eastern and Calder will play for Vic Metro; players from Greater Western Victoria, Geelong, Bendigo, Dandenong, Gippsland and Murray will play for Vic Country. I will make judgement on Victorians not drafted from the TAC Cup, it will just come down to geographic location.
Players from Queensland, New South Wales, ACT, Northern Territory, Tasmania and overseas will represent the Allies.
I'll try and compile a full list of SoO eligibility over the next few days.
THE TEAMS
ALLIES
Coach: AVAILABLE
ALLIES
Predicted Finish: 5th
Star Players: Dayne Zorko, Isaac Heeney, Jeremy Howe, Harris Andrews, Toby Nankervis
The Allies are probably the weakest side in the AFLTM competition despite including players from 5 states and territories as well as (technically) the rest of the world. Their forward line is menacing, including Tom Hawkins, Jack Riewoldt, Taylor Walker and Charlie Dixon, but the rest of the team is lacking in quality, especially the very important midfield, with Dayne Zorko, Dayne Beams and Isaac Heeney having to carry a very heavy load.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Predicted Finish: 4th
Star Players: Brodie Grundy, Lachie Neale, Shaun Burgoyne, Shane Edwards, Rory Laird
South Australia, once able to rival Victoria's power in State of Origin, have now fallen behind Victoria and WA in terms of team strength and will face an uphill battle to win State of Origin this year. Led by the league's top scoring ruckman in Brodie Grundy and the best small defender in the game, Rory Laird, SA's forward line is a concern despite a strong backline.
VICTORIA COUNTRY
Predicted Finish: 2nd
Star Players: Dustin Martin, Patrick Dangerfield, Scott Pendlebury, Ben Cunnington, Ben McEvoy
Victoria Country will be looking to press hard for the inaugural AFLTM State of Origin flag, boasting arguably the two most skilled players in the game, as well as the highest scoring player per game in the competition this season, Edward Curnow. Although they will more than likely be in the shadows of their more illustrious Vic Metro rivals, be wary of the boys from out bush.
VICTORIA METRO
Coach: Continstar
Predicted Finish: 3rd
Star Players: Rory Sloane, Adam Treloar, Clayton Oliver, Marcus Bontempelli, Robbie Gray
Representing the heartland of football, Melbourne's rep side contains some of the best midfielders in the game and is solid across the board. They lack some of the elite talent from the country, but nonetheless, should be pitted in a tight battle with Country and Western Australia. Max Gawn, Robbie Gray and current league top scorer Jack Macrae headline a very strong lineup.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Predicted Finish: 1st
Star Players: Nat Fyfe, Lance Franklin, Alex Rance, Patrick Cripps, Tom Mitchell
With Victorian talent split across two sides, Western Australia go into AFLTM State of Origin as the favourites and with a lot of expectations back home. Boasting arguably the best midfield in the comp, including Fyfe, Mitchell, Cripps and Coniglio, and a forward line including Darling, Kennedy and back-to-back Grand Final BOG Lance Franklin, Western Australia will be incredibly hard to stop on their day.
FIXTURE
I will finalise the fixture in the coming days with a nice little graphic, however this much is confirmed:
The competition will start on Week 1 of the AFLTM Final Series, which is Round 20 of the AFL season, starting 3rd August. It will then run for the next 5 weeks, finishing on the weekend after the AFLTM Grand Final, which is Finals Week 1 of the AFL, starting 31st August.
With a 5 team competition, there's no real point of a finals series. The competition will just be a round robin, with each team playing eachother once and having one bye each across the five weeks. The champion will be the team with the most premiership points (four for a win, two for a draw), and will be sorted on percentage if the points are the same.
Week 1 and Week 5 of the State of Origin will arguably be the hardest for coaches. Week 1 will see 8 AFLTM clubs compete in finals, meaning all of those players are unavailable for selection, whilst Week 5 will only draw on player scores from the 8 AFL clubs competing in the finals. I'll be giving the Allies and South Australia their byes in these two weeks as they are the weaker teams and would be hit hardest.
COACHING
I already had some preliminary interest in this concept, with Continstar, Pie 4 Life, peterss and knobby requesting teams. I've decided to vacate the Allies job, meaning its open to application. Preferably the coach will either coach an AFLTM from an Allie state or be from there themselves, but at the end of the day, as long as we've got coaches there I don't mind. If there's sufficient interest from other coaches I may even open up a reserve or Under-23 comp, but I doubt we'd get another 5 coaches wanting to put their hand up.
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