AFL State of Origin teams who would play in hypothetical Victoria vs Allies game, top players, snubs, analysis, latest news

As the NRL world turns its attention to the second clash of the 2024 State of Origin series at the MCG on Wednesday night, we took a look at what the AFL version would look like.

Of course, it’s not quite the same in Aussie rules – we don’t just have two dominant states hating each other. So we could go one of two ways; choose the Victorian side, Western Australia, South Australia and the Allies or just go all out against Victoria.

And given how many times ‘Victorian bias’ has been brought up this year, we thought we’d go with the latter – and below we’ve picked our top 23 Allies vs Victoria hypotheticals.

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These parts were selected based on 2024 form, not just name value.

That means high-speed players such as Toby Greene, Tom Stewart, Charlie Cameron and Tom Papley, who have fallen into regular production this season, are not picked – although if there was an actual State of Origin series, with safety would be in the mix.

Future hall of famers in Dustin Martin, Scott Pendlebury, Tom Hawkins and Luke Breust have also been overlooked as they are past their prime, but the numbers they would bring through the gate for an Origin clash would make them blocked from selection.

Injuries affected the chances of players such as Christian Petracca, Josh Kelly, Tom Liberatore, Stephen Coniglio and Aaron Naughton, while players such as Jordan Ridley and Oscar Allen ultimately did not play enough football to warrant selection.

VICTORIA

B: James Sicily, Jacob Weitering, Luke Ryan

HB: Nick Daicos, Darcy Moore, Harry Sheezel

C: Jack Sinclair, Zach Merrett, Sam Walsh

HF: Harley Reid, Jeremy Cameron, Zak Butters

FF: Harry McKay, Charlie Curnow, Dylan Moore

FOLL: Max Gawn, Marcus Bontempelli, Caleb Serong

I/C: Matt Rowell, Adam Treloar, Max Holmes, Dan Houston, Noah Anderson

A scoring chain of Gawn hitting Serong, who hands Bontempelli, who finds Reid, who hits Curnow in the chest, sounds incredibly difficult to stop.

In terms of the biggest omissions, Luke Davies-Uniacke, Lachie Whitfield and Ed Richards proved very persistent not to go through, while Sam Flanders and Bailey Dale both had strong seasons at half-back but could not to overtake potential Brownlow. winner Daicos or young gun Sheezel who will be a stalwart of this team for years to come.

Ben King may consider himself extraordinarily unlucky to be leading the race for the Coleman Medal, but Cameron’s sheer talent plus the dominance of McKay and Curnow as a duo made them too hard to ignore. Gunners Jake Stringer and Kyle Langford were also considered.

Josh Daicos is one of the game’s best elite players but has just been ruled out, as has the always underrated Sam Collins in key defence, while the improvement of Mac Andrew, Hayden Young and Ben McKay this season has been profound . Tristan Xerri and Rowan Marshall were in contention if we chose to pick a second ruck.

Josh Kelly probably would have been picked if he had played just another game or two.

ALLIES

B: Cal Wilkie, Harris Andrews, Jeremy McGovern

HB: Dayne Zorko, Sam Taylor, Nic Martin

C: Jordan Dawson, Patrick Cripps, Errol Gulden

HF: Isaac Heeney, Jake Waterman, Shai Bolton

FF: Tyson Stengle, Jesse Hogan, Izak Rankine

FOLL: Brodie Grundy, Chad Warner, Lachie Neale

I/C: Elliot Yeo, Luke Jackson, Nick Blakey, Tom Green, Will Day

Given that South Australia and Western Australia would often beat Victoria on their own, it’s no surprise that a team combining the two heartlands and northern states is incredibly strong.

The Swans’ midfield is heavily represented here, but throw in three Brownlow Medalists plus the guy they’d love to have back (but plays in Adelaide instead), and you’ve got an unstoppable pack.

Eagles interceptor Tom Barrass, Dockers fullback Jordan Clark and Saints fly Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera all missed out on selection in defence, while Saints hardman Jack Steele was dropped for fellow Canberran Green.

Port Adelaide duo Connor Rozee and Jason Horne-Francis almost made moves and recently signed Swans forward Will Hayward was also in the mix.

Last month, Melbourne champion and Fox Footy commentator Garry Lyon took to SEN to express his frustration, saying it was a “disgrace” there was no longer an AFL State of Origin series.

“It’s an absolute disgrace that we don’t have State of Home football,” Lyon told SEN Breakfast.

“I know people say, ‘you’re flogging a dead horse.’

“It’s a total shame we don’t have it. It’s a shame we don’t.”

The last true AFL State of Home was played in 1999 when Victoria took on South Australia.

“We gave it up, we gave up control of the golden ticket and now they’re going to come into our city in the middle of football season and have 95,000 people watching their home state while we’re playing peeps in the corner.”

Lyon believes clubs need to “see beyond” their own bubbles and think about the greater good of the game. There is a growing belief that some players are opposed to an AFL Origin return because the potential risk of injury outweighs possible team success.

“On June 26, it’s Victoria against whoever, Harley Reid will be playing for Victoria, Nick Daicos will be playing for Victoria, Zak Butters will be playing for Victoria,” he told SEN.

“Tell me why we don’t have that in our game? It’s a shame!

“Didn’t you hear Billy Slater? The game owns the players. Give something back.

“The clubs’ self-righteous view of things – look beyond it. It is beyond you. Raise this game.

“We are taken over by the game in the northern states in the eyes of the country. We’ll go back to being a small game and code that pleases us when we’ve had the ability to please the wider community.

“Reid, Daicos, Butters against Gulden, Heeney, Warner, all playing at the highest elite level. Their resumes are worse because they couldn’t establish themselves in this game at that level.

“Those who run the game, you have let us down badly.”

– with Max Laughton