Origin’s Back, But Will Anyone Outside WA And SA Care?

So the AFL has gone and set the date and time for next year’s State of Origin dust-up between Western Australia and South Australia. Good on em, I say – but am I the only one who reckons this whole thing feels like it’s happening in a different postcode to the one most of us live in?

Carn the Pies, obviously, but this one’s got nothing to do with Collingwood. Which is sort of the point I want to make.

Origin For Two States, Interest For Two States?

Let’s be honest here. The minute you say “State of Origin” to a Victorian footy fan they think of one thing – the old Vic versus the Rest of Australia stuff from back in the day when guys like Dipper and Daisy Pearce’s dad generation were running around in guernseys that actually meant something to an entire state.

This WA-SA version is a nice idea. It really is. Those two states have a genuine rivalry, a real chip on both shoulders about being overlooked by the competition that’s headquartered in Melbourne. Fair enough too – would you be happy if your footy capital was a thousand kays away and run by blokes who’ve never been to Subiaco or Adelaide Oval on a Friday night?

But does it move the needle nationally? Does my Nan in Ivanhoe care what time the bounce is? I doubt it.

Why The Date And Time Even Matters

The AFL reckon they’ve nailed down the scheduling so it doesn’t clash with finals footy or pre-season buildup, which is smart thinking for once. Nothing worse than shoving a genuinely interesting concept into a dead timeslot where it gets buried under more important news – like whether Collingwood’s forward line is going to click into gear or not.

Getting the date right actually matters heaps. You want eyeballs on this thing, not just WA and SA eyeballs but the rest of us tuning in out of curiosity. Timing is everything in footy – ask any Pies fan who’s watched us get a five minute burst in the third term over the years and wondered where it was in the first.

The Nostalgia Angle Is Real

I’ll give the concept this much – there’s something in me that lights up a little bit thinking about proper state footy again. My old man used to talk about watching Vic play WA back when it meant something, when blokes would risk their whole career playing out of position just to pull on the jumper for their state.

Would any current player do that now? Would a bloke on a mega contract go in hard in a game that doesn’t count for premiership points and risk getting crocked? That’s the real question hanging over this whole revival, and it’s one the WA and SA boys are gonna have to answer when the whistle blows.

If the players treat it serious, fans will treat it serious. If it’s a glorified training run with a guernsey on, nobody’s going to care past round one of interest.

What It Means For The Rest Of Us

Now here’s where I get a bit parochial, because that’s what you pay me for. What does this mean for a Collingwood supporter sitting in the outer at the ‘G wondering why we can’t find a system that works for more than six weeks at a time?

Honestly? Not heaps. It’s a nice sideshow. It gives the WA and SA media machines something to chew on for a few months, gives their radio callers something other than draft speculation to argue about on brekky radio.

But it also shows something I reckon the AFL still hasn’t figured out properly – this competition is still, at its heart, a bunch of regional tribes that don’t always see eye to eye. WA reckons they get a raw deal. SA reckons the same. Victoria reckons everyone else should stop whinging and remember who invented the game.

Sound familiar? It’s basically every argument you have with your mate from another club at the pub, just dressed up in state colours instead of club colours.

Could This Grow Into Something Bigger?

Here’s my genuine hope, and I reckon most footy heads would agree with me on this one. If this WA-SA concept actually works, if crowds turn up and the footy’s willing and the players actually care about winning it, then why not build it out?

Bring Victoria back into a proper interstate carnival. Get Queensland and New South Wales involved properly instead of just as draft catchment areas. Imagine a full round robin style Origin series running through the pre-season or even a bye round during the year.

Would that cannibalise club footy? Maybe a little bit. But it would also give fans something different, something with actual history behind it rather than another meaningless pre-season cup final that nobody remembers a week later.

The Umpiring Angle (Because Of Course)

Can’t write an article without mentioning it – I reckon even in an exhibition match like this you’ll get decisions that make you scratch your head. Every footy fan from every state has a theory about which umpires favour which teams, and I’m not saying anyone’s definately biased, just that it’ll be interesting watching how a one-off representative match gets officiated compared to normal rounds.

No agenda there, just an observation from a bloke who’s watched enough free kicks go against Collingwood to have earned the right to be a little bit suss on these things.

Final Word From The Outer

So there you have it. The date’s locked in, the time’s locked in, and WA and SA footy fans have got something to circle on the calendar. Good luck to both states, genuinely.

Will it capture the imagination of the whole competition? Probably not straight away. But these things have to start somewhere, and if it gives us even a sniff of proper interstate footy returning down the track, I reckon it’s worth persisting with.

In the meantime, my focus stays exactly where it should be – on whether the Pies can string together four quarters of real footy this year. Origin’s a nice bit of theatre on the side. Collingwood’s premiership credentials are the main game.

Carn the Pies.