NSW Origin team 2022
While the State of Origin at the elite level is a relic of time, an expert panel has carefully compiled a team of 22 plus coaches from the AFL who were born and bred in NSW. We reckon they’d go alright against the rest!
By Rod Gillet
All-Australian captain Tom Hawkins and fellow 2022 All-Australians Callum Mills and Isaac Heeney head the list of players from NSW selected in this year’s State-of-Origin team.
Tom Hawkins is again 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 59 goals.
Callum Mills, who won this year’s Carey Bunton Medal for the best player from NSW in the AFL this season, is vice-captain of the team.
Nick Blakey has been declared the winner of the Jimmy Stiff Medal for Emerging Talent following a break-out season with the Sydney Swans. Jimmy Stiff was a South Sydney 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 his senior assistant is Giants caretaker coach Mark McVeigh.
In announcing the NSW State-of-Origin team for 2022, NSW Australian Football History Society patron, Richard Colless, who leads the selection process said: “This year’s team is probably the strongest ever, and the selectors felt that this team could give most AFL teams a run for their money.
“Fourteen members of the team came from southern NSW stretching from Albury to Moama including the Wagga area and the MIA, colloquially known as the Barassi Line, while five players were from Sydney, two from Broken Hill, and Isaac Heeney from Newcastle.”
“Three of the Sydney players – Rampe, Blakey and Gulden – were recruited from UNSW-Eastern Suburbs, the most from any single club. Three clubs provided two players each – Will Setterfield and Charlie Spargo (both from Albury Tigers), Harry Perryman and Matt Kennedy (Collingullie-Glenfield Park) while “Tex” Walker and Isaac Cumming are both from Broken Hill club, Norths.
“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”.
See the full team HERE
