Welcome to State of Origin Rebooted, reigniting the great rivalry between Western Australia and Victoria.

Over the next month the thewest.com.au will feature the build-up to a mouth-watering showdown between the two old rivals, featuring the modern game’s biggest stars as if a game was going to take place.

Once the final 22s, coaches and captains have been selected, official statistician Champion Data will use their wealth of knowledge on the 44 players to predict how the match would play out in real life.

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The simulated game will take place on Saturday, June 17, with the result published in The Sunday Times on June 18.

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The coverage will include a quarter-by-quarter scoreboard and full stats panel, as Champion Data analyses how the big guns would fare against each other based on their performances this season and throughout their careers.

Expert selection panels for the rival States have already picked their 30-man squads. They were asked to lock in 18 players and then come up with a shortlist of the next 12, which is where readers come in.

Both the WA and Victoria teams will be finalised by readers, with a public vote running until noon on Tuesday.

The WA panel included former State of Origin chairman of selectors Dennis Cometti, great Barry Cable, Channel 7 commentator Basil Zempilas, The WestAustralian chief football writer Mark Duffield and The Sunday Times sports writer Braden Quartermaine.

The Victorian selection panel included Hawthorn and Big V great Leigh Matthews, named the best player of the 20th century, and Ted Whitten Jr, son of the iconic Ted Whitten whose catch cry of “Stick it right up ’em” became part of Origin folklore.

Veteran football writer Mike Sheahan, journalist and author Glenn McFarlane and The Sunday Times sports editor Glen Quartermain completed the Victoria panel.

Coming 25 years after the last State of Origin game between the two States, Cometti said State of Origin Rebooted was a terrific exercise that would help give players recognition.

“I loved State of Origin football. I doubt we’ll ever see it again. But something like this is very interesting and I think will interest a lot of people, because you can see by the squad we’ve selected that WA football is alive and well,” Cometti said.