Disagree. Surely if all the players from Sydney FC were from Sydney and they played Victory and they were all from Melbourne it'd mean more regards city bragging rights than who had the biggest budget.

Just look at teams in the EPL. Most of the teams don't have a single player from the town or area they're in. It really is like Seinfeld said. You're cheering for the uniforms.

SOO started in 1980.For many years NSW had dominated the interstate series which stretched back to the early days of Rugby League in Australia-probably 80 % of the games prior to 1980 were won by the Blues.From the 1950s onwards this dominance was more marked as the Sydney RL clubs ,funded by poker machine money,were able to buy the best Qld players who then played for NSW in the interstate games.There were no pokies in Qld at that time.

As the public had lost interest in the interstate games because of the one sided nature of the contest it was decided to make it a state of  origin series.The origin concept was stretched to include in which state you first played at senior level.  Greg Inglis  who was a very famous Qld player and  who was indigenous was actually born on the North Coast of NSW.He played his first senior game for a Brisbane club which was a feeder club for the Melbourne Storm so this was counted as his senior debut.

Queenslanders had a chip on the their shoulders about how NSW lorded it over them prior to 1980 and when the first SOO series produced a Maroon victory they were cock a hoop.Since then Qld has won more series than NSW and a really intense rivalry has ensued and even people not that interested in club games watch the games which are hard fought and intense.

Sigh. This week long festival of football is so exciting we've started discussing Origin. Thanks APL, you've reduced us to this. 

I really couldn't care less where the players are from or where they have been. I care where they are now. Club rivalries have nothing to do with the players. It's all about the rivalries between fans. I don't hate any Sydney FC player. The opposite actually. The fans on the other hand.
I dunno, maybe it is just one of those subtle cultural differences you see from state to state. It's like when Adelaide people ask which school you went to. Who cares where you were a decade or so ago. Where are you right now. 

Yep back to the real football.There are going to be a multitude of Mariners fans there .After those horrible years when the club finished with a collection of wooden spoons the loyal supporters and the band wagoners will there in force.

I have never been to this stadium but from all accounts it has good views of the pitch from all aspects.Obviously I am hoping for a Mariners win though City's midfield is such a strong unit especially if AON is on his game

Come on mate. Local lad makes good always gets a huge cheer in any team.

I agree with JC on this one Muz.... Club loyalty isnt only about geography... Maybe its different down here in Melbourne because of the way AFL clubs stopped being about the inner city suburbs of Collingwood and Richmond and Fitzroy  many many many decades ago? I dont rightly know.

The derbies you mention in our sport, especially the  big inter city ones are not really about geography mate..... IntervMilan, Roma v Lazio, Celtic v Rangers, Man City v United, Liverpool v Everton and on an on have fans living in the same street

I didnt know that about Victory and Adelaide mate .....  I wonder why??? :P   As for AFL SOO yeah I remeber back in the 80s but it was never that huge down here and nobody I knew ever really cared.  also .... yes lots of fishing :P

Maybe sometimes, but it's not the driving factor. Winning is. I really could not care less if a player is from my home town or yours. If he's playing on my team, doing well, helping my team win, that's all that matters. To be honest I would struggle to tell you what the majority of the MV players' "origins" are. It really doesn't matter to me. Let's face it, the place you were born is usually just the place some bloke didn't pull out quick enough.

Geography is a huge consideration for club loyalty. Maybe not in big cities where there are half a dozen clubs but just about everywhere else it is. But I take your point regards inter city rivalries.

Getting dragged off the point here. Geography, as well as all the other stuff I wrote about on the last page, is why State of Origin is so huge.

Agreed, in "one club towns" all over the world geography is THE MAIN bond ..... eg a club like Napoli in Serie A... its ALL about defending the city from the Northern scum ......

I get the reason for SOO rugby being so revered when there is so much animosity between the two states, I guess maybe down here we dont get why there is so much animosity if that makes sense? As for clubmates wailing on each other in a state vs state fight sorry mate, in my way of thinking that is not something to be celebrated... Like JC stated previously I could care less where the lads are born, which national team the represent, what state they represent in state of origin or whatever, when they put on the Hellas jersey that weighs more than all others combined... A NSW born Hellas player injuring a QLD born Hellas player in a meaningless match for some sort of bullshit state vs state mate vs mate crap will get the suitcases knocked out of him in the carpark upon return to Lakeside :)

If the AFL set up a state vs state and SA played Victoria you get exactly the same thing we get here. SA would be the QLD of the 2 trying to knock off the big boy Vics who've plundered their ranks for years etc etc etc. 

I remember vaguely the VFL playing a few of these maybe 40 years ago. I'm sure there were punch ups unless I'm not remembering that correctly. They got less popular because none of the clubs would release players for a 'meaningless' fixture. SOO gets around this by serving as a selection trial for the Australia side as I said previously. The issue in AFL is of course there is no 'Australian' side.

Here you go. In 1989 they played an SOO at the MCG between SA and Vic and got 91 thousand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Origin

Melbourne is an odd place Muz.  Back in the day they used to get 20,000+ every Sunday to Essendon Airport to watch the planes take off and land.  Most of them are theatre goers.

I reackon that plays a huge part in the decline down here...

91 thousand is a SMALL crowd at the MCG mate ..... hahahahahahahahahahah

Hahahah thats is just sooooo mean .... Do any planes even fly into or out of Tasmania on a Sunday? hahahahahahahah 

Live update from the APL Grand Final party..... hahahaha this shit is hilarious.....

https://twitter.com/simonfrary/status/1664504069808074752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1664504069808074752%7Ctwgr%5E33131152f25fee9ed88431adb448424e2fc1119d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2F13y4836%2F%3Fresponsive%3Dtrueis_nightmode%3Dfalse

How depressing 🙁 yet hilarious at same time 😂

Weird,sad and depressing.What a waste of time and money -the APL seems to be totally disconnected from the fan base.

Can’t wait to see what they have in store for next year. I don’t understand the low crowd turnout. I mean if I’d paid good money to travel to Sydney for a couple of days to support my team, women’s 5 a-side football and a jumping castle would be top of my list of ‘must do’s’.

The SMH had two articles about today's GF.The first by Vince Rugari was about the Mariners' renaissance and was two full columns( five columns to a page).The second by the Rugby Unionphile,Peter Fitzsimons,was a putdown of the A-league and how little notice it attracts so that today's game has almost slipped by without any fanfare( TBF he does have a point).
Did any Melbourne papers mention the A-League GF considering a  Melbourne team is involved?

Why did old Petey write about it then? I'll tell you what he will hear about the women's world cup and he can't talk smack about that because he'll be called sexist check and mate Pete 

All we’ve got - political rugari and wanka all about me Fitzsimmons.

Come on Mariners! 

Triantis is going to be big. Greece aren't sniffing about, are they? 

Every second seat is empty on second level. 

Actually 2/3 probably empty. 

Get in. Game end to end so far

Get in! Silvera just skinned Reis there.