Players had the option to play than junk concept.
SOO you would be forced to play
Team is greater than state and if we lost say a Zach Merrett to a LTI I would legitimately go postal on the AFL
I was thinking more 100k for it to be a godfather, and you’d want it to be.
*not a doctor
But also, I don’t give a rats about state rivalry.
I just want one game.
23 vs 23.
I’d do it East vs West but I’m not really fussed how you’d draw it up.
If the money was there, and it was a long term thing, that sort of selection would be as prestigious as…well, at least as much as state games were.
Edit: yes, the players have to want to play. Hence the money.
Those all star games are rubbish though. Not sure if you’ve ever watched the NFL or Nba ones, there is zero intensity and the crowd couldn’t care less who wins. You’d basically have an all star game with country v metro anyway, except the players are actually representing something, country lads in particular are very proud.
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I watched an AFL one and it was ace.
Goodes was sublime.
Edit: that one was Victoria vs the rest of the world.
You wouldn’t do that now.
Do the VFL/WAFL/SANFL still do the SoO (well, it is really more a rep game) thing?
Yep. SANFL beat WAFL a few weeks back
Anyway, it’s fun to think about.
Mostly just wistful nerdy stuff.
I wonder what a top twenty draft pick team vs the rest would look like.
Edit: twenty years ago I’d have gone, ‘oh, that’s an interesting idea’ and made a thread (and teams).
Too old and tired for those sort of shenanigans now.
I’d read the hell out of it, though.
Oh intesresting, i never saw this was living in the u.s back then. It still had a Vic team though. I actually think it’s damaging to the brand having Vic v the rest, the northern media like to portray football as a ‘Victorian game’ to diminish it (the only country in the world where some states bag their only national invention), that’s why showing how truly national the game is with every state having their own team is a great reflection of the footprint of Australian football.
5 states can field teams better than most AFL teams, the other two can field teams both filled fully with afl players. How many sports in Australia could do that?
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Yes but it really is a joke and it’s treated like a joke by the states. Many of the better players pull out with mysterious illness or injuries, the best sides aren’t always picked and this year they even played it at at 3pm on a Friday arvo and had about a dozen supporters rock up
injuries happen.
would be a good experience for Merrett and Parish playing for VIC Country
for sides outside the 8 and struggle winning finals would be great experience against quality opposition
Red dog and Draper would play key role for SA
Nick Martin for WA
Davey boys and Munkara and walla for NT
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Injuries that happen playing for the club I can cop but not playing for some Mickey Mouse AFL event.
SOO was big growing up because much like the NRL SOO the SA and WA teams as underdogs felt they had something to prove against the big bad league.
Once the Eagles and Crows entered the comp and were both largely state teams the interest in SOO died. The VICS much like the NSW in NRL never really cared for SOO and it was only the smaller states keeping it alive
It’s not happening guys haha
This is all just hypothetical discussion about what the teams from each state/allies would look like.
Thanks for the post. Has me looking back very nostalgically (is that word?).
Would love to see this again.
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I think there was an element of that, but i also think Victoria had a population boom, s.a population stagnated and the gap between the two became too big. If something isn’t competitive, it dies. I remember going to the last origin game at the mcg v s.a and it was boring coz it was a no contest. That’s why as per under 18 level, you split Vic into 2, effectively creating another underdog state in Vic country, that could actually compete with metro.
If you had metro v country, s.a v w.a, qld v nsw, tas v n.t all those games are evenly matched which drives the interest. W.a v metro at Optus stadium would also be a good game, imagine the build up in Perth.
SA fans were really only interested in the games v Victoria and the Crows coming in pretty much ended the main interest and by time Port came in it had no real support.
Unless SA are playing Victoria there would be pretty much zero interest these days
I think with the 4 tier 1 teams you change the match ups regularly. So year 1 metro v country, s.a v w.a, then year two the winners play the winners, the losers the losers, at both Adelaide oval and Optus stadium.
Yeah, I very much doubt there would be any interest in playing VIC Metro or Country.
It’s SA v VIC or WA or it’s nothing IMO
It’s that time of year again when this futile thing always pops up 
It’s obviously not likely to ever happen for a number of reasons but I am still interested in the hypothetical lineups nonetheless.
Harley Reid straight into the Big V jumper! There would be something very amusing about Reid dishing out don’t argues and booting goals to down a WA team in front of the fans in Perth
The West Australian newspaper wouldn’t know what to do anymore!
In current form Guelfi is very unlucky to not got a spot at least on WA’s bench
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Waterman should be FF Hogan CHF Naughton to the bench.
Guelfi a step below these guys. maybe list him as Emergency for Hill or Bolton
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