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

[Bostonian]

Love to see it back.

In March we play it in an outbakc town lets say and bring the economy to life and they need it.

Like a carnival type of thing for a week and play in outback rural areas that need a kick start.

And have the best v the best in a series of matches.

In March say and like the annual footy carnival to the farming areas.

This would be great.

And when Nick Daicos does his knee in one of those games and is out for the season would that be great?

 

[speedpeck23]

Training is part of preparing for games worth points for your club. SOO is worth nothing.

Players have to train.....might as well make it SOO.

 

[Bostonian]

Players have to train.....might as well make it SOO.

No, might as well not.

Players train to work on the coaches game plans and gel with their actual team mates.

SOO is pointless.

 

[Bjo187]

Have the indigenous game pre-season in the years with international rules in post-season. And don't have origin in those years. Keeps the indigenous game, while keeping origin state and territory based. The two forms of representation are entirely different and should not be mixed into one competition.

It also means origin and IR don't happen too often, may keep player interest fresh for longer.

And doesn't leave open someone cheering for their state being labelled racist for cheering against the indigenous team. The optics of 50k booing a player on the indigenous team after some on-field scuffle, or an umpiring decision that goes that way would be a serious risk as part of a competition if fans care about opposing teams.

Yep the afl will kill the golden goose if they have SOO every year with the same teams. Even 2 games in a row for a state side across 2 weeks won't work like Eddie suggested. It will become a burden and players won't wanna give it their all 2 weeks in a row in the pre season and be away from home for a week before the long home and away season begins.

I'm confident however if it's once every 3 years maximum that you can represent your state, that it will work. It will have hype, novelty and players won't wanna miss the rare opportunity. It also needs to be W.A v Vic in Perth as the main game. The locals will be frothing at the mouth to beat Victoria.

Something like:
Year 1: W.A v Vic metro and Tas v N.T in Perth
Year 2: S.A. v Vic country, NSW V QLD in Adelaide
Year 3: indigenous v African all stars, post season - Australia v Ireland

Then repeat every 3 years.

 

[iameviljez]

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.

Not necessarily. I think for it to be racist, it needs to be perjorative. I didn't get that feeling from the Fremantle/Indigenous game earlier this year. But you do need to be really, really careful with it.

 

[iameviljez]

Love to see it back.

In March we play it in an outbakc town lets say and bring the economy to life and they need it.

Like a carnival type of thing for a week and play in outback rural areas that need a kick start.

And have the best v the best in a series of matches.

In March say and like the annual footy carnival to the farming areas.

This would be great.

What's that? Oh, it's the sound of some... hamstring soreness. Yeah, that's it. Hamstring soreness. Sorry boss, I can't make it to the week at Manangatang. Maybe next year.

 

[iameviljez]

If it was going to work, or come even remotely close to working, these would probably be the necessary conditions:

• 1 game per team every two years - that's all.
• Game must be in the mid-season bye. Too early = shits and giggles footy. Too late = too risky.
• Victoria, SA, WA must play as whole entities. No Vic Country and Vic Metro bullshit.
• Victoria only plays against SA or WA.
• Whether QLD, Tas, NSW/ACT and NT play as the Allies, or separately, is neither really here nor there.

 

[Bjo187]

Hmm, this frustrating thing again.

Just so people know how TV ratings work..

Look at a hypothetical Friday night.

• A 2 hour NRL telecast which is watched by 2m people for an average of 1hr (50% of telecast time) gets an official TV rating of 1m.
• a 3 hour AFL telecast which is watched by 2.7m for an average of 1 hr (33% of telecast time has an official rating of 900,000.

In this example, the NRL telecast has ‘outrated’ the AFL by 100,000 despite being watched by 700,000 fewer people.

Also the fact on Saturday night for example, you might have 2 afl games on head to head which split the audience. So say each afl game has 600k viewers for a total of 1.2 million watching afl on a Saturday night. Then one nrl game on nationally has 700k viewers on a Saturday night. Peter would claim that as a 100k win under his formula that he uses.

I'm also unsure if all the ch9 nrl games go national to all states. Afl games a lot of fta broadcasts are only in say w.a and qld for a west coast v brisbane game and those states might miss the Friday night game as each state gets their own teams and only get 3 games per weekend. Again, this makes the afl averages artificially look lower, coz only 2 states are getting the telecasts of a number of games. This is compared to the whole nation who typically get the same nrl games on fta, bumping up the average audience number.

 

[Bjo187]

If it was going to work, or come even remotely close to working, these would probably be the necessary conditions:

• 1 game per team every two years - that's all.
• Game must be in the mid-season bye. Too early = shits and giggles footy. Too late = too risky.
• Victoria, SA, WA must play as whole entities. No Vic Country and Vic Metro bullshit.
• Victoria only plays against SA or WA.
• Whether QLD, Tas, NSW/ACT and NT play as the Allies, or separately, is neither really here nor there.

Allies is the world's worst concept.

 

[Walshawk]

If we are going to play for two years, while the GF is pushed back for other reasons, and we are waiting for Tas, simply play on Labour Day weekend:
2026 SA v Vic
2027 WA v Vic (50 year anniversary of the first SOO game WAv Vic)
That is all that matters.

All the players from other states and Ireland can represent their countries when IR inevitably returns.

 

[Walshawk]

Also the fact on Saturday night for example, you might have 2 afl games on head to head which split the audience. So say each afl game has 600k viewers for a total of 1.2 million watching afl on a Saturday night. Then one nrl game on nationally has 700k viewers on a Saturday night. Peter would claim that as a 100k win under his formula that he uses.

I'm also unsure if all the ch9 nrl games go national to all states. Afl games a lot of fta broadcasts are only in say w.a and qld for a west coast v brisbane game and those states might miss the Friday night game as each state gets their own teams and only get 3 games per weekend. Again, this makes the afl averages artificially look lower, coz only 2 states are getting the telecasts of a number of games. This is compared to the whole nation who typically get the same nrl games on fta, bumping up the average audience number.

That doesn’t happen anymore. Non Vic states (if their games are not Thur/Fri/Sun 3.20pm, get their games on FTA delay.

 

[iameviljez]

Allies is the world's worst concept.

It absolutely doesn't work for WA and SA.

I don't know how Tas/QLD/NSW/NT feel about it, because really as standalone states, they're on a hiding to nothing.

 

[iameviljez]

If we are going to play for two years, while the GF is pushed back for other reasons, and we are waiting for Tas, simply play on Labour Day weekend:
2026 SA v Vic
2027 WA v Vic (50 year anniversary of the first SOO game WAv Vic)
That is all that matters.

All the players from other states and Ireland can represent their countries when IR inevitably returns.

Which one is Labour Day weekend? Different in every state AFAIK

 

[Underarm]

It absolutely doesn't work for WA and SA.

I don't know how Tas/QLD/NSW/NT feel about it, because really as standalone states, they're on a hiding to nothing.

It's just as hollow.

Anything outside of Vic v SA/WA is played for the sole purpose of getting every club to share the risk.

 

[Walshawk]

Which one is Labour Day weekend? Different in every state AFAIK

Early March. Doesn’t really matter.

 

[iameviljez]

It's just as hollow.

Anything outside of Vic v SA/WA is played for the sole purpose of getting every club to share the risk.

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.

 

[Bjo187]

That doesn’t happen anymore. Non Vic states (if their games are not Thur/Fri/Sun 3.20pm, get their games on FTA delay.

What doesn't happen anymore? Non Vic states get their games on a 2 hour delay if they are on a Saturday, but that only applies up till round 10.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

This will be a classic case of AFL policy on the run. The unique nature of the Indigenous v Freo glorified exhibition game does not mean that the reasons why State of Origin died on the vine won't still be there.

SOO always relied purely on resentment directed at Victoria. The one exception was 1989 because Victorians were intrigued by the idea of a game at home.

Does anyone remember the 1987 WA v SA game? No, because nobody went.

So basically unless every other state (or fabricated "team") gets to play Victoria at home (because Victorians won't give a stuff), the idea is pointless.

The last Aussie Rules SOO was in 1999.

The world has changed enormously since then. One example is that NRL SOO just gets bigger and bigger.

If people are serious about a footy SOO, they’re probably not planning to try to re-create the glory days of last century. I’d say their eyes are firmly fixed on the juggernaut that is today’s NRL SOO.

That’s not to say the concept would work, but I think it’s important to establish what we’re talking about here.

 

[iameviljez]

What doesn't happen anymore? Non Vic states get their games on a 2 hour delay if they are on a Saturday, but that only applies up till round 10.

... I'd be interested to know what percentage of AFL fans have succumbed to Kayo.

 

[iameviljez]

The last Aussie Rules SOO was in 1999.

The world has changed enormously since then. One example is that NRL SOO just gets bigger and bigger.

I think one thing that has changed is that people are less invested in state-based rivalries than their parents were.

Especially with the advent of internet-based jobseeking and the like, people are so much more mobile than they once were. Perth/Adelaide/Melbourne aren't as cut off from each other as they once were, and so the us/them isn't as clearly defined as a part of people's identity as it once was.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

nobody cares or knows who won their Premiership

LOL.

 

[Bjo187]

... I'd be interested to know what percentage of AFL fans have succumbed to Kayo.

Looking at the tv ratings on free to air and personally knowing a few people that have joined for the first time this year, it's been a significant shift imo. Foxtel don't release the ratings till round 10 though apparently.

 

[speedpeck23]

No, might as well not.

Players train to work on the coaches game plans and gel with their actual team mates.

SOO is pointless.

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.

 

[Bostonian]

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.

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

 

[speedpeck23]

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

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.