2023 NSW origin team
This article first appeared on the NSW Australian Football History Society’s website. Check out the site for more great stories and facts about our game in NSW.
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All Australians Taylor Walker (Adelaide Crows) and Sydney Swans’ star winger Errol Gulden head the list of players selected in this year’s NSW State of Origin team.
Taylor “Tex” Walker was named as captain of the team. This season he also won the Bill Mohr Medal (named in honour of the St Kilda goalkicking champion in the 1930s from Wagga) for leading NSW goal kicker this season with 76 goals.
Errol Gulden, who won this year’s Carey Bunton Medal for the best player from NSW in the AFL this season, was selected on the wing.
Kieran Briggs has been declared the winner of the Jimmy Stiff Medal for Emerging Talent following a break-out season with the GWS Giants. Jimmy Stiff was a South Sydney premiership star who won the best player award at the ANFC interstate carnival in Sydney in 1933.
The coach of the team is Sydney Swans coach John Longmire, who played Origin for NSW in 1988 and 1990, and originally hailed from Ovens & Murray League club Corowa-Rutherglen.
In announcing the NSW State of Origin team for 2023, NSW Australian Football History Society patron Richard Colless, who leads the selection process said, “This year’s team is equally as strong as last year’s, and the selectors felt that this team could give most AFL teams a run for their money”.
“Thirteen members of the team came from southern NSW stretching from Albury to Moama including the Wagga area and the MIA, while six players are from Sydney, with Taylor Walker from Broken Hill, and Isaac Heeney from Newcastle”.
“Three of the Sydney players – Buckley, Blakey and Gulden – were recruited from UNSW-Eastern Suburbs, the most from any single club. Two clubs provided two players each – Kieran Briggs and Braeden Campbell (both from Pennant Hills), and Collingullie-Glenfield Park duo Harry Perryman and Matt Kennedy.
“As the convenor of the selection panel, I want to thank the selectors, Gerard Healy, Mike Sheahan, Mark Maclure, and Wayne Carey, and Rod Gillett for their considered input.
“We were very pleased to have the support from the AFL Coaches Association for the voting system for the Carey-Bunton Medal. Thank you to Alistair Nicholson and his team at the AFLCA.
“Thanks also to AFL Photos for providing the head-shots for all the players and coaches.
“And finally, thanks to the media including the AFL Record and all the regional newspapers as well as the AFL clubs for their interest and support for our awards.”
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