As for "credibility", what credibility does a game that pretends to be State of Origin have when one of the sides is called the "Dream Team" ?

This is an AFL exhibition match. Nothing more. Not representative football. It should have been (given the 150th celebrations of the code and the role which interstate footy played pre-AFL), but sadly isn't and a major opportunity has been missed to bring some true representative events at the elite level back to the footy calendar. Unfortunately for us, the only representative match the AFL plays these days is in, another sport - gaelic football.

Anyways, I am more concerned about how increasing professionalism among the International Cup playing group will effect the turnout and standard there. Although I did see on the AFL site that the Brunmeier boys will be allowed to play for the Revolution, which is a good sign, hopefully PNG's John James will also be able to represent his country.

To save the IC from the same issues of credibility effecting the IC in future, I think that the Australian Amateur Football Council should become more involved and the AFL less involved.

If you think it'll be a problem as international players become professional and therefore maybe not being available for the IC, how would involving the Australian Amateur Football Council help? They have no influence on pro or semi-pro leagues. I'd like to see the All-Australian amateur team in there one day, but that doesn't help with this issue.

Nick Riewoldt will also be missing for the Dream Team, injuring his knee and expected to be out for 8 weeks. Ironically it is genuine multiple week injuries that is knocking over most of the stars.

---
Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

That is what I'm talking about. Lets not kid ourselves that the AFL will ever support the IC being a fully professional event. So it makes sense to let people run the event who actually know a thing or two about amateur footy.

These are nice concepts but I don't think they stack up to reality. The Australian Amateur Football Council is effectively just an agreement between the major state amateur associations that mostly run 1 rep match per year. I don't think they'd claim to be much more than that. So the Victorian amateurs are a big part of the AAFC. You're basically saying hand over the IC to something like the VAFA or the SA or WA equivalent.

With all due respect to those excellent organisations, where would it leave us? The AFL has actively sought to involve the VAFA and the VCFL, so the Victorian amateurs have already been given the opportunity to be involved, and they are to some extent. So the concept of somehow taking it away from the AFL and giving it to exclusively the AAFC would mostly just remove the AFL from the picture, reduce the amount of funding, and reduce the number of countries that will attend. Let's not kill the event with good intentions.

---
Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Back to the Tribute Match, and we've got two polls running (see right hand column). Who do people think will win the match, and who do people want to win the match.

As a South Australian I'll be barracking for the Dream Team (yes, I'd love State of Origin to have come back, but it hasn't, thanks to the AFL clubs themselves). As to who I think will win, well the Dream Team has lost a lot of talent - I had Chad Cornes as a big bodied on-baller and Reiwoldt stretching the Big V's defence alongside Franklin and Pavlich, so Cornes and Reiwoldt out hurts.

But Hodge out weakens Victoria, so I think a lot will depend on whether Jonathon Brown and Gary Ablett play. If both were out, the Dream Team would start favourites. But really, who knows, with so many gun players thrown together anything could happen.

---
Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

What I am questioning is whether this is an amateur event or not. If it is not amateur, then semi-pro and pro players should be allowed to compete and the AFL (as the game's governing body) should be doing everything in its powers to ensure that they do compete (similar to the way it "encourages" AFL players to partake in the Hall of Fame match).

Personally though, I don't think this is realistic, and I'd prefer it to be declared an amateur only event without any other pretentions. If a player is currently paid to play, by any club, they should be ineligible. I'd rather see good players miss out because of ineligibility than because their clubs won't release them. Leagues around the world should be encouraged to identify themselves as amateur or not. This solves the problem of player availability and leaves the door open for Australia to field an all-amateur team in future.

When there are heaps of internationals in the state leagues and AFL, then maybe the IC will be able to take a step up to become a fully professional event and the AFL will recognise it with stadiums and ticketing. But I can't see this happening for decades.

Basically all I was questioning whether a pro-league is qualified to run what is at the moment essentially an amateur competition.

So you'd like to see the AFL roll in $400k to the AAFC to run the IC. My first thought would be that it's a big call and not a reasonable ask, but as you say, some leagues do get AFL grants. Although on that subject I'm not sure of the exact details - I believe most of the SANFL funding comes from the profits of Adelaide and Port Power (the SANFL holds the licence for both). But there would be some extra money as well.

But what is wrong with how the AFL is running it? The 2 main issues that I'm aware of is cost and planning. The planning is nothing that wouldn't be encountered by any organisation (and would be worse for a smaller body), and the cost won't be helped by being run by an amateur organisation spending the same AFL money.

In terms of whether amateurs or pros should be allowed to play, the reality is the tournament will only rise in profile and quality if the best players possible can play. So anyone eligible and available should play in my opinion. So the only issue there is, again, will semi-pro and pro clubs release players? So will, maybe some won't. But it's better to have the best possible and accept some will miss, rather than deny all players the chance if they are paid at all, which is what the rules you suggest would do (and keeping it truly amateur is a can of worms, e.g. the South Australian amateur league is amateur in name only - many players are paid).

So if we agreed to go for the best possible, then sure it would be good if semi-pro and pro clubs released players, but do you really think someone like Brad Moran would wish to play in the tournament at the expense of trying to force his way into Adelaide's team? I could be wrong, but I doubt he would. It's his whole career we're talking about.

The only option to open up the event to such players is to stage it in the off-season of the Australian leagues and then hope players make themselves available. But most competing countries WANT it in-season, as it means their own leagues are in season and they get to visit Melbourne during the football season when AFL matches are on. Over time as the international leagues grow that may be less of an issue as the trip becomes less of a novelty and maybe a change will occur. I'd love to see it held in say March or October, but from what I've heard from some of these countries, that isn't what they want just yet. Happy to hear otherwise.

It just seems to me that a lot of things are moving forward but there's constant pressure to radically change them when most of the signs are good. Yes we'd like the AFL to throw more money at it, but giving it to another organisation to run won't achieve that. Excluding some of the best players from representing their country and thus weakening the tournament won't help the cause either. Let's not push for change just because say some people don't like Andrew Demetriou or they don't like the way the AFL is run etc. It has to be change that is good for the international game. Presumably we all agree on that but disagree on the logic of the arguments.

---
Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN