The Flyers and The Rampage choose ends with “rock-paper-scissors” at this year’s AFLX tournament. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Remember AFLX? Yes, it was back in February, and we’re now halfway through a real football season, so you’re forgiven if you don’t. But I’ve had an idea or two about the concept I’d like to share.

There’s been reports the AFL has put out feelers to clubs about submitting tenders to join yet another rejigged version of the fledgling competition, the idea that clubs would buy a license to join.

That has reportedly met with indifference. Which can hardly be surprising.

Why would clubs want to take on even more financial and administrative responsibility for a speculative competition still in its infancy, which has to date been the subject of far more cynicism than enthusiasm?

Imagine an AFL club board announcing to its members it was going to drop a bomb of money on something most of them, if not at best lukewarm about, seemed to actually loathe?

The only other suggestion has been that the tenders could be opened to the private sector, as has been successfully implemented in the Indian Premier League T20 cricket competition.

That might also have been dismissed pretty quickly via media channels, but you can bet someone, somewhere has at least planted that seed to gauge interest.

It has also been suggested by Damian Barrett (who works for the AFL) and Craig Hutchison (never one to shy away from a potential commercial opportunity) on their “Sounding Board” podcast that the next AFLX tournament will be held at AAMI Park.

All of that leads one to believe that the guys at “City Hall” have decided AFLX is here to stay. They just don’t know yet who will be playing in what teams and exactly where it will played.

Clearly, the AFL isn’t about to admit defeat. Can it actually get people interested? Well, how about this idea consisting of three words? State. Of. Origin.

I’m not a massive fan of AFLX by any stretch of the imagination, but I do understand the reasoning behind the concept, easier to market overseas etc. However, that will never happen if no one in the country of origin is watching it.

But if Victoria ended up playing South Australia in a grand final, even in the watered down AFLX format, I know I would tune in. So you would get the fans on side with that. You’d get to see state of origin footy without having to really worry about your players getting injured. So that’s another win.

The players via the AFLPA have stated their interest in playing representative football, and this could be a chance for them to rub shoulders with the elite of the elite. You’d also find that more players would put their hand up to get, say, a Western Australian or Tasmanian tick against their resume.

And then there’s the AFL. As we all know, the guys and girls at AFL House love to borrow ideas from our cousins in the good old US of A.

This could be an all-star weekend type affair, where you have a rookies game, goalkicking contest and a 100-metre sprint on the Saturday, then have four teams play a round robin on the Sunday, much like the format that happened this year.

Of course, you could still have the players walking with their fancy suits and all that sort of thing that seems to make the networks happy.

Think the old state of origin carnival, but condensed for a 2019 concentration span. It’s not perfect, but it is some compromise that I think would appease all stakeholders.

Just for some added evidence, I thought I’d pick four 16-player squads (below), just so we could see what the talent on show would be like, another benefit that we could have a Tasmanian team to showcase the talent out of the state before they hopefully get their own AFL team.

What do you reckon?

VICTORIA
Patrick Dangerfield, Luke Parker, Scott Pendlebury, Robbie Gray, James Sicily, Marcus Bontempelli, Jack Ziebell, Rory Sloane, Luke Shuey, Joel Selwood, Dustin Martin, Michael Hurley, Max Gawn, Jeremy Cameron, Luke Hodge, Sam Walsh
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Lachie Neale, Shannon Hurn, Bryce Gibbs, Rory Laird, Shane Edwards, Brodie Grundy, Orazio Fantasia, Jack Redden, Justin Westhoff, Jared Polec, Eddie Betts, Chad Wingard, Travis Varcoe, Rhys Stanley, Phil Davis, Trent Dumont
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Alex Rance, Jeremy McGovern, Tom Barrass, Nathan Wilson, Mitch Duncan, Elliot Yeo, Tom Mitchell, Nat Fyfe, Patrick Cripps, Stephen Coniglio, Dom Sheed, Tim Kelly, Jaeger O’Meara, Nic Naitanui, Lance Franklin, Josh J. Kennedy
TASMANIA
Ben Brown, Jack Riewoldt, Toby Nankervis, Liam Jones, Aaron Hall, Kade Kolodjashnij, Jake Kolodjashnij, Jeremy Howe, Alex Pearce, Lachie Weller, Mitch Robinson, Hugh Greenwood, Brody Mihocek, Tarryn Thomas, Tom Bellchambers, Robbie Fox