Are State Games Neccessary....?

[RoosterMarty]

I'm not sure how many players would want to play after the season has finished, especially if they have won a flag.

[sydney-dog]

if you have the carnival every 2-3 seasons, then have a two week mid season break, it would allow all clubs to freshen up and you get a pretty good carnival with plenty of interest

[MagicKiwi]

I think we NEED them, it was so good last night watching all of us in the cheersquad come together, made me happy watching everyone wave their clubs flags as one.

And you looked fabulous too SBR.

I voted to keep the state game however, I always feel better about it if we don't get injuries. I feel for that poor lad with the knee Friday night.

[Aerie]

Scrap the state game and make a bigger deal of the SANFL team of the year on Magarey Medal night. Imagine watching Kernahan, Platten, Bradley etc. playing for Victoria against SA in the 80's. This is the same thing except we're fortunate to be in the strong position now.

To maintain interstate rivalry, I would like to see a pre-season tournament in the following format as well as an 8 team knockout pre-season SANFL tournament with the 8 teams who didn't win the previous year's premiership:

Week 1
Match 1: SANFL premiers vs WAFL premiers
Match 2: VFL premiers vs NSWAFL or QAFL premiers
(losers go back to play trial games in their own state, winners go through to Final in week 3)

and the SANFL pre-season tournament based on previous year's position..

Game 1: 2 vs 9
Game 2: 3 vs 8
Game 3: 4 vs 7
Game 4: 5 vs 6
(losers organise own trial games, winners go through to week 2)

Week 2

Game 5: Winner of Game 1 vs Winner of Game 2
Game 6: Winner of Game 3 vs Winner of Game 4
(losers organise own trial games, winners go through to final in week 3)

Week 3 (Grand Finals)

Interstate Club Champions Final: Winner of Match 1 vs Winner of Match 2
SANFL Pre-season Final: Winner of Game 5 vs Winner of Game 6

Week 4

Clubs can play trials and be ready for the real season to commence the week after.

[Dogsbody]

No way... I don't want to see the SA jumper laid to rest!

The only way to do it is to play over a long weekend, State Footy on Friday and the next round on the holiday Monday. I don't like that idea myself, but that seems to be more ideal than a club having two weeks off.

[JK]

Perhaps it's something that comes back to the 8, 9 or 10 team competition ... I'm sure the clubs would be more receptive to retaining the series if they weren't confronted with Bye's throughout the season?

[Valleysvirgin]

If only another 5,000 people thought the same as a few of these posters and had got down to Adelaide Oval last friday then the entire subject of 'do we need state games' wouldn't be getting debated. A crowd of 10,000 would put the question beyond doubt but I have sensed that a lot of passionate SANFL-ers who did/did not go have been fairly underwhelmed by it all.
We all loved Kicking A Vic in those State-Of-Origin games back in the eighties. They were fantastic for a lot of reasons not the least being we got to see the best from the VFL live for once also (let's be honest here).Some of the most memorable games we had we got beaten in.
Is it the same now? Probably not. Most of us couldn't care less about seeing Nathan Buckley or Justin Leppitsch play as we get vision of these guys 24 hours a day on Foxtel if we have it. We used to get 50,000 to Football Park for State Of Origin when we'd have 5 Rounds averaging 8 - 10,000 in SANFL. Now we have at best 4 Rounds averaging (even with SANFL creative accounting whereby an 800 person crowd at Noarlunga always appears as no less than 1200) with around a quarter of that halcyon average figure.

We get better crowds to Norwood on a friday night and the odd heritage game. Sad but true,state footy's days are numbered.

[giffo]

I think it could have been better timed. If you are going to play it on a Friday night, do it during the school holidays. I wasnt going to take my lad as we have school footy on Saturday mornings and it was bloody freezing! Also the point about having Victorian players in the SANFL side, what crap. Can't you remember Blight playing for the VFL in the pre-State of Origin days. As their is more Vics in our comp than Croweaters in theirs, this would only favour them.

[Ian]

I think it could have been better timed. If you are going to play it on a Friday night, do it during the school holidays. I wasnt going to take my lad as we have school footy on Saturday mornings and it was bloody freezing!

I took both my kids, but they were certainly 2 of not many there. I did find out how to get my 11 yo to watch a whole game of footy though, sit him down facing the super screen and he thinks he's watching TV

[Aerie]

Also the point about having Victorian players in the SANFL side, what crap. Can't you remember Blight playing for the VFL in the pre-State of Origin days. As their is more Vics in our comp than Croweaters in theirs, this would only favour them.

Your point being?

[Dogsbody]

I think his point is that we shouldn't hold it against the SANFL or the State jumper that players from other states are playing in it. This is after all State League vs. State League.

[-]

Poor question.

Two no answers and a near enough to no answer.
One yes answer.