Expansion ? ""EAST COAST" AUSTRALIA"...as AFL State of Origin Combine team.. NSW/ACT/QLD. Would it work ? Could it compete ??

[speedpeck23]

Thinking laterally and outside the square.....but could this work? Could such a team get traction, be relevant, be effectively marketed and supported.

State of Origin is problematic for AFL... multiple states with different levels of capacity to be competitive.... runs counter to the aims of competitive balance in the AFL Club competition.

State of Origin clearly is a great marketing tool for NRL... Best players compete... If you live in either NSW or QLD you are automatically connected to it at some level even if you don't follow NRL that much. It goes beyond club level and gains extra support for NRL.

In addition the start up costs are next to nothing compared to building a club... It becomes a massive free kick for the sport.

Imagine all those Origin fans as as nominal East Coast supporters.....

Could an AFL State of Origin format be promoted successfully with competitive representation for all states and contribute to AFL expansion without compromising the AFL competition at Club level?


Suggested format....including EAST COAST.....

* State of Origin Round played the immediate weekend after the AFL Grand Final

* Played in effect as an " After Party Event" for Grand Final. For most supporters (except for Premiers) post Grand Final can feel like a void..... State of Origin could have an emphasis of simply celebrating footy for all supporters as much as seeing which team wins.

* AFLW included. Effectively mid season but would create opportunity for top players to play in front of sell out crowds and be a further promotion for the club competition.

* AFL Clubs get salary cap dispensation for allowing their top players to be available for matches.

* Fixture.....

Match 1. Friday Night ( 7.30pm CST), TIO Stadium, Darwin

NORTHERN TERRITORY V TASMANIA,

"Top End" v "Tassie"

Match 2. Saturday Twilight (6pm EST) , Optus Stadium, Perth

WESTERN AUSTRALIA V EAST COAST AUSTRALIA

"Best of the West" v "Coast with the Most"

Match 3. Saturday Night (8pm CST, 8.30 EST) Adelaide Oval, Adelaide

SOUTH AUSTRALIA V VICTORIA

"Stoush in the South"

No matches in VIC, NSW/ACT or QLD to avoid direct comparison between AFL and NRL State of Origin....needs time to build.

Deliberate focus on smaller states which do not have Grand Finals or State of Origin. Provides for "Big Match Event" at end of season for SA and WA particularly irrespective of how local clubs have performed during the season.

TAS. and NT would play each other yearly at alternate venue. Hobart/Darwin.

Matches may be used to promote charity or community projects.

All regions of Australia represented. NORTH/SOUTH/EAST/WEST

State of Origin gives all supporters and players an opportunity to be involved in a high profile match at the end of the season irrespective of how their AFL club performed during the season.

Elite players from "non AFL States" gain a higher profile which helps promote the game in those states.

? AFL are missing a massive opportunity if they don't re-look at State of Origin.

East Coast Australia is an iconic location, locally and internationally, having an AFL team competing at State of Origin level could make it even more iconic !

Thanks for reading..... would value opinions.

GO EASTS !!

 

[Billy ray]

 

[Sky]

Wish you made up a team so I could see if it’d stack up to WA yet alone Victoria.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

So, mini-Allies? I don't get it.

 

[RonnieRaven]

the most viable is east vs west.
SOO effects some teams to much to have during season and to hard to fill all origins with enough quality talent to draw the eye balls at the end of year.
Have a bye before gf
AFLW Grand final on Friday night
East vs west Saturday night
West chosen from:
Eagles
Dockers
Port
Crows
Geelong
Bulldogs
Roos
Bombers
Demons

East:
Lions
Suns
Swans
Giants
Hawks
Saints
Tigers
Pies
Blues

Besides the grandfinalist your still going to make two quality teams of players that want to go hard and are quality!

Don’t get me wrong in an ideal world I would love to watch SOO again.
fond memories going to footy park to watch the state team train when I was young!
Just not viable in my opinion.

 

[Kwality]

the most viable is east vs west.
SOO effects some teams to much to have during season and to hard to fill all origins with enough quality talent to draw the eye balls at the end of year.
Have a bye before gf
AFLW Grand final on Friday night
East vs west Saturday night
West chosen from:
Eagles
Dockers
Port
Crows
Geelong
Bulldogs
Roos
Bombers
Demons

East:
Lions
Suns
Swans
Giants
Hawks
Saints
Tigers
Pies
Blues

Besides the grandfinalist your still going to make two quality teams of players that want to go hard and are quality!

Don’t get me wrong in an ideal world I would love to watch SOO again.
fond memories going to footy park to watch the state team train when I was young!
Just not viable in my opinion.

Watch an NRL Origin game - State pride.
Not an all star game of no relevance.

 

[WillHayward]

I like the idea.

Sadly a qld/nsw side would get absolutely panted by WA.

Qld and NSW still not producing enough players.

 

[RonnieRaven]

Watch an NRL Origin game - State pride.
Not an all star game of no relevance.

Because there’s two states two teams
It won’t work with 5+ teams.
And I doubt the new generation have the same state pride that I grew up in.
When I grew up you drove a Holden
Drank farmers Union ate villis pies
And you loved kicking a vic!
Even though I it would be amazing it’s unrealistic.
Like equality in the fixture every year there will be half a dozen threads about SOO but it will never happen like once was.
I understand that and are just spitballing other things that might be viable.

 

[nick1408]

Watch an NRL Origin game - State pride.
Not an all star game of no relevance.

Yeah, it's probably the biggest reason that State of Origin as a concept is dead within the AFL. Rugby League works as they kept it as New South Wales against Queensland and resisted any push (however minor) to add teams. Two teams with loyalty attached. Any idea (and they're not bad ideas per se) that takes away fan loyalty I don't think will work. Crowds will be down, TV audiences will be down and most importantly money will be down. On top of that, if the players don't have an attachment to a team (VIC, WA, SA, TAS tc) they will be less willing to pull on the jumper. Unlike Rugby League, it would be nigh on impossible to choose only two states for Australian Rules to represent in State of Origin.

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

Thinking laterally and outside the square.....but could this work? Could such a team get traction, be relevant, be effectively marketed and supported.

State of Origin is problematic for AFL... multiple states with different levels of capacity to be competitive.... runs counter to the aims of competitive balance in the AFL Club competition.

State of Origin clearly is a great marketing tool for NRL... Best players compete... If you live in either NSW or QLD you are automatically connected to it at some level even if you don't follow NRL that much. It goes beyond club level and gains extra support for NRL.

In addition the start up costs are next to nothing compared to building a club... It becomes a massive free kick for the sport.

Imagine all those Origin fans as as nominal East Coast supporters.....

Could an AFL State of Origin format be promoted successfully with competitive representation for all states and contribute to AFL expansion without compromising the AFL competition at Club level?


Suggested format....including EAST COAST.....

* State of Origin Round played the immediate weekend after the AFL Grand Final

* Played in effect as an " After Party Event" for Grand Final. For most supporters (except for Premiers) post Grand Final can feel like a void..... State of Origin could have an emphasis of simply celebrating footy for all supporters as much as seeing which team wins.

* AFLW included. Effectively mid season but would create opportunity for top players to play in front of sell out crowds and be a further promotion for the club competition.

* AFL Clubs get salary cap dispensation for allowing their top players to be available for matches.

* Fixture.....

Match 1. Friday Night ( 7.30pm CST), TIO Stadium, Darwin

NORTHERN TERRITORY V TASMANIA,

"Top End" v "Tassie"

Match 2. Saturday Twilight (6pm EST) , Optus Stadium, Perth

WESTERN AUSTRALIA V EAST COAST AUSTRALIA

"Best of the West" v "Coast with the Most"

Match 3. Saturday Night (8pm CST, 8.30 EST) Adelaide Oval, Adelaide

SOUTH AUSTRALIA V VICTORIA

"Stoush in the South"

No matches in VIC, NSW/ACT or QLD to avoid direct comparison between AFL and NRL State of Origin....needs time to build.

Deliberate focus on smaller states which do not have Grand Finals or State of Origin. Provides for "Big Match Event" at end of season for SA and WA particularly irrespective of how local clubs have performed during the season.

TAS. and NT would play each other yearly at alternate venue. Hobart/Darwin.

Matches may be used to promote charity or community projects.

All regions of Australia represented. NORTH/SOUTH/EAST/WEST

State of Origin gives all supporters and players an opportunity to be involved in a high profile match at the end of the season irrespective of how their AFL club performed during the season.

Elite players from "non AFL States" gain a higher profile which helps promote the game in those states.

? AFL are missing a massive opportunity if they don't re-look at State of Origin.

East Coast Australia is an iconic location, locally and internationally, having an AFL team competing at State of Origin level could make it even more iconic !

Thanks for reading..... would value opinions.

GO EASTS !!

Honestly, the notion of State vs. State is just irrelevant in AFL footy these days.

It's virtually state vs. state each week. Is there anyone out there old enough that is still living that hates South Australian's anymore?

Who would passionately cheer for their state? Frankly, who gives a s**t if Victoria win a random game against WA?

Although that rivalry exists in the NRL, it simply doesn't anymore in the AFL.

So what you're left with is an All-Star type situation, like the NBA or the baseball. In the MLB, it's kind of a big deal because they actually try. You can go hard because of the nature of the sport allows it. Doing well in an All-Star game is an achievement, as you're playing against the best of the best.

That can't work in the AFL because there is no way players will go full pelt for 100 minutes, thus rendering this aspect void. Playing well in an AFL All-Star game where no one is trying is not an achievement of any note at all.

In the NBA, they have a crack for the final 5 minutes. Up til that point, it's a bunch of freaks doing freakish things. The nature of basketball, when played by the best, is that even when they're not trying to win - it can still be incredibly spectacular to watch. Freakish dunks, half court shots, alley oops, etc.etc. Its like a Harlem Globetrotter show.

In an AFL All-Star game, what highlights would there be? A guy getting hit lace out on the lead with a pass? A good running handball receive? A defender punching the ball over the boundary line? A guy kicking a goal??
Who would pay to see that?



I just don't see what the selling point could be for either a State vs. State or an All-Star game in the AFL.

 

[Roobs321]

The ship has sailed on origin in AFL. I think the underage rep champs (men & women) should be embraced more as our best-available modern-day origin and leave it at that. Leave it to amateurs, state leagues and under/over age. You can also bandwagon one of the foreign sides in the International Cup.

Indigenous All-stars every few years as well as International Rules is all the rep I would care to see from the elite level.

 

[Kwality]

It's virtually state vs. state each week.

You sure you ever understood Origin?

 

[DragoDelph]

The ship has sailed on origin in AFL. I think the underage rep champs (men & women) should be embraced more as our best-available modern-day origin and leave it at that. Leave it to amateurs, state leagues and under/over age. You can also bandwagon one of the foreign sides in the International Cup.

Indigenous All-stars every few years as well as International Rules is all the rep I would care to see from the elite level.

Mix and match the all star teams year to year. Some years east vs west, some indigenous vs other. Play it in the pre-finals bye week, players only from non-finals teams.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

It's virtually state vs. state each week. Is there anyone out there old enough that is still living that hates South Australian's anymore?

When WA, SA, NSW, Qld only had one team each, you could sort of make the case that those games were state vs state. Certainly not Origin, but the clubs were sort of state sides in a way.
Since Gold Coast's existence, nothing could be considered state v state.

 

[Kwality]

When WA, SA, NSW, Qld only had one team each, you could sort of make the case that those games were state vs state. Certainly not Origin, but the clubs were sort of state sides in a way.
Since Gold Coast's existence, nothing could be considered state v state.

Long bow.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Long bow.

It is, but I can sort of see where it came from at that time.

 

[Kwality]

It is, but I can sort of see where it came from at that time.

There is little doubt the Eagles squad of the early to mid 90s was effectively a WA team & the State lost interest in the Origin concept.

 

[speedpeck23]

There is little doubt the Eagles squad of the early to mid 90s was effectively a WA team & the State lost interest in the Origin concept.

Do you think that is the reason the AFL don't promote SOO ? ?In other words does it contradict the idea of promoting AFL Clubs in NSW, QLD particularly....

 

[Kwality]

Do you think that is the reason the AFL don't promote SOO ? ?In other words does it contradict the idea of promoting AFL Clubs in NSW, QLD particularly....

The AFL want its moniker to stand alone.
It would be good to know where they are taking the game in 10 years time.

The problem for Origin is the clubs & if you dont get the games elite playing, it devalues the competition.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Do you think that is the reason the AFL don't promote SOO ? ?In other words does it contradict the idea of promoting AFL Clubs in NSW, QLD particularly....

Things like Allies - or the OP's concept - certainly alienate NSW and Qld, where the AFL see growth for the league's profits (any growth of the game they are supposedly custodians of is purely incidental), as well as the markets not big enough to care about. As would putting states into divisions, the only way a SoO competition could work without Allies. And even then, making a viable competition is difficult given the way Australian Football can expose on the scoreboard gaps between teams and the definite gaps that exist even in any division.

However, as Kwality says the biggest stumbling block is the clubs. They are very powerful in the AFL, and unlike the NRL the AFL is both a league and the sport's governing body. They invest a lot in their player assets and only want them risked in club football.
Mid-season is out of the question, pre-season is out of the question as coaches want to trial tactics and get key players learning new set-ups, and post-season clubs will send players off for any medical treatments needed (or not needed if its an excuse to keep them out).
(I think) SoO is played under the national governing body's banner (ARL), with the NRL responsible only for the leagues which bears its name (NRL and NRLW). Any Rugby league people confirm/contradict that?

Leaving off Vic and other states isn't as big a deal to RL, and SoO is by far the higher level of the sport and also a drawcard "event" outside the game's heartland.
Vic v WA might be the higher level if Australian Football had SoO, but Tas v NT certainly would be below the average AFL club level match and barely scrape together an audience worth putting out on Youtube. In addition, Origin is used as selection trials for the Australian team.

I would like origin back, with actual states and territory/ies, but can't see it happening. It hasn't got broad support, maybe still a majority, among fans of the sport; whether it would have support from players more than a couple of times in a career is questionable, it would not bring in big broadcast revenues (and money is preferred over sport by the AFL), and there is zero chance of full support from the clubs. Any commissioner that did more than float the possibility in the media and then drop it would likely get voted out very quickly.

 

[footyfan1978]

Shithouse idea.
Rather break up Victoria into Vic Country and Vic Metro than make up combined representative sides that represent no one.
NSW and Queensland need their own sides for people from there to even consider to take an interest in it.

 

[wahawk]

I wouldn’t goes as far as the poster above & call it a shithouse idea.
I love your enthusiasm towards it

But SOO is dead & buried.
It can never work again for the many reasons pointed out in posts above

Sad but true

 

[My_Username]

the most viable is east vs west.
SOO effects some teams to much to have during season and to hard to fill all origins with enough quality talent to draw the eye balls at the end of year.
Have a bye before gf
AFLW Grand final on Friday night
East vs west Saturday night
West chosen from:
Eagles
Dockers
Port
Crows
Geelong
Bulldogs
Roos
Bombers
Demons

East:
Lions
Suns
Swans
Giants
Hawks
Saints
Tigers
Pies
Blues

Besides the grandfinalist your still going to make two quality teams of players that want to go hard and are quality!

Don’t get me wrong in an ideal world I would love to watch SOO again.
fond memories going to footy park to watch the state team train when I was young!
Just not viable in my opinion.

Drawing a line through the middle of Melbourne for 'East V West' ...yeah, nah.

I do agree however that a 'representative' game really does need just 2 teams.

My preference there would be for the AFL to follow the U18 division of Vic and have a 'city V country' game, and just like with split for Vic, the dividing line would include a lot of outer suburbs as 'country'.

 

[Kwality]

I wouldn’t goes as far as the poster above & call it a shithouse idea.
I love your enthusiasm towards it

But SOO is dead & buried.
It can never work again for the many reasons pointed out in posts above

Sad but true

I see the only place for Origin is from the push for more & more clubs/players.
Seeing the elite players only in a dinkum contest will draw any fan of our game.

The players would need to drive the call for games through the PA, with the prestige of playing Origin being valued, even rewarded with big $$s.
It could be played in a carnival as it was 'back then', see 1966 Hobart Carnival - Wikipedia

Whether AFL Origin could achieve the TV ratings of the NRL version is open to question, but would be a big moneyspinner.

 

[speedpeck23]

I see the only place for Origin is from the push for more & more clubs/players.
Seeing the elite players only in a dinkum contest will draw any fan of our game.

The players would need to drive the call for games through the PA, with the prestige of playing Origin being valued, even rewarded with big $$s.
It could be played in a carnival as it was 'back then', see 1966 Hobart Carnival - Wikipedia

Whether AFL Origin could achieve the TV ratings of the NRL version is open to question, but would be a big moneyspinner.

Value the opinions of all of the above. I think AFL SOO would definitely rate, particularly post grand final....I recall....and it is going a long way back....late 60's early 70's the VFL Premiers would take on the SANFL Premiers at Adelaide Oval...... always a full house. It would always rate.. The classic match was 1972 when North Adelaide beat Carlton by a point.... maybe the Blues were still celebrating from the week before. In 1971 Hawthorn def Nth Adelaide in front of 37,000 .
Seems to me there is a let down after the Grand Final.. except for Premiers..........you need a "After Party Footy "...