Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nWHAT’S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.<\/p>\n
Lyon expects two strong sides to take the field, describing rubbing shoulders with the game\u2019s greats during his Origin heyday as \u201cone of the great thills of my footy career\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s Caleb Serong coming back from Western Australia. If it\u2019s Noah Anderson and Matt Rowell to come back and sit alongside our modern day greats. That\u2019s what I want them to be able to experience, because I know what it meant for me,\u201d Lyon said on SEN radio. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pure footy, it\u2019s as pure as it gets … I understand there\u2019s people who don\u2019t think it should come back and I would imagine there\u2019s plenty going: \u2018This is a joke\u2019. Well, it\u2019s not going to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to beg players to come back and play State footy. They\u2019ve said they want it, the AFL have thrown considerable weight and resources behind it, they\u2019ll be well compensated for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be massive in Western Australia, it will be a sellout. So I\u2019m absolutely confident we\u2019re going to get a really strong side.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you imagine Sam Darcy getting on the end of a sizzling pass from Zak Butters? That\u2019s what excites me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garry Lyon in the 1995 Victorian State of Origin team (Picture: Brett Faulkner)Source: Herald Sun<\/p>\n
While Lyon conceded some players mightn\u2019t want to take part given the injury risk, he thinks there\u2019s a responsibility to \u201ccelebrate the game\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concerns about losing players, I understand. But none of them are better than Gary Ablett Snr, none of them are more important than Tony Lockett or Greg Williams. And they all put their hands up and played on a Tuesday in the middle of the year,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes we as a code need to have these occasions where we celebrate the game. We have an opposition code who do that so well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get together and say: \u2018Hey, for the good of footy and to continue to support footy, there\u2019s only one premier, but these great players have got to be able to have an opportunity to play on a big, big stage\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cState of Origin footy is a big, big stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
So are there any Victorian players already locked in?<\/p>\n
Lyon, though yet to sit down with Scott to discuss names, said some players would be announced in the coming weeks to help promote the game.<\/p>\n
The Melbourne legend suggested West Coast young gun Harley Reid could be the perfect candidate to pull on the Big V.<\/p>\n
Could Harley Reid pull on the Big V? (Photo by Morgan Hancock\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you imagine how much he would benefit from walking into that four-day camp and training, preparing, sitting down at breakfast and talking to the best players in the competition?\u201d Lyon posed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be the best thing that ever happened to him. <\/p>\n
\u201cWithout pre-empting anything, I could see how that would be a great thing for Harley and the promotion of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon was hopeful that a \u201csmoky\u201d would get a chance to make a name for themself on the Origin stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I loved back in our day with EJ Whitten and their selection, they always found room for a little smoky,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of a sudden you\u2019d pick the paper up and go: \u2018What!? Brent Harvey is going to play for Victoria? Who\u2019s this Brent Harvey character!?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThen he goes out, I think he turned 21 the night before he played, and kicked five goals and won the EJ Whitten Medal and away he went.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping \u2018Scotty\u2019 is open to us being able to slip a little smoky in there somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019ll mark the first State of Origin match since 1999.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Victoria captain and Fox Footy\u2019s own Garry Lyon has been named the chairman of selectors for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[156827,156823,64,63,689,684,60450,77653,156828,12923,10133,156824,156830,150045,102462,10145,82802,156822,2105,156829,156821,156820,12157,647,156826,156831,156819,25844,677,156834,156832,16205,147522,12105,1124,85,156833,51300,156835,660,156825,108577,7067],"class_list":["post-269394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ang-christou","tag-anthony-stevens","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-ben-cotton","tag-boundary-throw-ins","tag-boyd","tag-brent-harvey","tag-chris-scott","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-david-neitz","tag-eagles-dean-cox","tag-footy-career","tag-garry-hocking","tag-garry-lyon","tag-gary-ablett","tag-gary-odonnell","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-greg-williams","tag-jim-stynes","tag-mark-bayes","tag-matt-rowell","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-manfield","tag-modern-day-greats","tag-nathan-burke","tag-noah-anderson","tag-oceania","tag-opposition-code","tag-players-mightn","tag-rule-changes","tag-rule-tweaks","tag-sam-darcy","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-state-footy","tag-stephen-silvagni","tag-stewart-loewe","tag-victoria","tag-victoria-v","tag-wayne-campbell","tag-west-coast-eagles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}