The Allies (Australian rules football)

The Allies is an Australian rules football interstate representative team consisting of players from Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, and Tasmania. Allies contested senior State of Origin football between 1995 and 1998, and have contested the AFL Under 18 Championships annually since 2016.

Allies

Team information
Nickname	The Allies
Governing body	Australian Football League
Team results
First game
Allies 13.14 (92) to 8.13 (61) Western Australia 1995
Biggest win
13.14 (92) to 8.13 (61) vs Western Australia, 18 June 1995
Biggest defeat
22.16 (148) to 14.11 (95) vs Victoria, 10 July 1998

History

The team was first proposed as part of the AFL Commission's five-year plan released in August 1994. The AFL Commission had just become the sport's national governing body which including administering interstate football; this replaced the council of state-based governing bodies which had run their representative teams independently. The composite team was intended to renew the public's waning interest in the state of origin series by creating a single team which would be selected under pure state of origin rules, and which would be more competitive against the main states (Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia) than any individual minor state team.[1] The venture also gave players from those states the opportunity to compete against the main states. The team was launched as the Australian Football Alliance in March 1995, nicknamed the Allies, and the name was chosen intentionally to honour the Allies from World War II, which were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the war victory that year.[2]

The team's first match in 1995 was a win against Western Australia at Subiaco Oval. Its last match was in 1998 against Victoria the Brisbane Cricket Ground, a 53-point loss. Its overall record was two wins (both against Western Australia) and two losses (both against Victoria). The best on ground for Allies in each game received the Alex Jesaulenko Medal, named in honour of future Hall of Fame Legend Alex Jesaulenko, who began his playing career in Canberra.

Since 2016, Allies has competed in Division 1 of the AFL Under 18 Championships. The team is selected from the top players in the former Division 2 state teams – New South Wales/ACT, Queensland, Tasmania and Northern Territory.[3] The team is yet to win a championship.

Allies wore a guernsey with teal and black halves in 1995, and added a jagged white-trimmed orange field from 1996. Its guernseys and logos featured a stylised letter A formed from a black star on a white background.[4] Since its re-establishment as an Under-18s team, the Allies guernsey remains based on the 90s design, but is predominately sky blue instead of teal, and adds a dark green stripe and maroon cuffs and socks – thus representing the state sporting colour of each of its composite state and territory teams.

In recent years, allied or composite teams under the names of Dream Team and All Stars have competed in one-off senior State of Origin matches against Victoria. These teams have drawn on all players of non-Victorian origin, rather than just from the traditional Allies states, and have been branded differently to Allies.

Women's football

In senior women's football, an Allies interstate team incorporated players from the traditional Allies states as well as South Australia and Western Australia for a one-off match against Victoria in July 2017 at Etihad Stadium. Victoria won by 97 points.[5]

At the Under 18s level, composite teams under the Allies name have competed in the AFL Women's Under 18 Championships since the 2017 season; however, these are differently composed to the men's competition. In 2017, the Allies comprised players from South Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania;[6] and since 2018, two separate Allies teams have competed: the Central Allies (Northern Territory and South Australia) and Eastern Allies (New South Wales, ACT and Tasmania).[7]

References

1. Stephen Linnell (23 August 2014). "AFL plan dooms Lions". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 50.
2. Stephen Linnell (15 March 1995). "Allies join state-of-origin battle". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 36.
3. "Allies join U18 Championships". Sports TG. 30 October 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
4. Allie jumper Archived 30 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine - Retrieved 23 June 2011.
5. Cavanagh, Chris (2 September 2017). "Big V hands Allies State of Origin lesson". Herald Sun. News Corp. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
6. "Women's Under-18 Championships kick off in Adelaide". AFL Media. 12 May 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
7. Caitlin Arnold (7 June 2018). "Eastern Allies squad announced for upcoming 2018 NAB AFL Women's Under-18s Champs". AFL NSW/ACT. Retrieved 29 February 2020.