Selection in the side named annually is a highly-coveted honour among the AFL’s players and Sheedy said it was only fair that one of the biggest games outside of the Grand Final be used as part of the selection criteria.
“If you are playing in such a prestigious game like this, the only real reason I am involved in it is because it is serious and because the players' performance will be rated for All-Australian selection; I think that is crucial," Sheedy told Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper.
"If you are going to the Olympics, you pick your team from the national championships. You don't just pick them out of club results. This is the best of the best.
"It gives an opportunity for the [All-Australian] selectors to consider the game if they want to, because they will be starting to sit down as a group at the halfway mark of the season.
"It will only be a percentage, but that's fair enough. This is the best game other than the Grand Final."
The tribute match pitting the best Victorian state of origin players against a Dream Team made up of players from the rest of the country is a one-off to celebrate the code’s 150th anniversary, but Sheedy felt a representative match should form part of the AFL’s calendar on an ongoing basis.
“We are in a situation where we need to develop markets,” he said.
“We should take the best 50 players to western Sydney and play the All-Australian side versus the challengers. We need to take the game on the road; take it to Queensland, it doesn’t worry me.”
