Bont v Toby, Serong v Smith: Who pulled rank in Origin's number battle?

CALEB Serong or Bailey Smith – who's top of the pecking order?

When it comes to the all-important guernsey numbers for next Saturday's AAMI AFL Origin, competition has been fierce.

Given the selected teams contain the best of the best, there's an overrepresentation of players who occupy single-digit jumpers for their regular clubs, which are traditionally reserved for the stars.

A rule has been instigated: if multiple players request the same number, the deciding factor is number of AFL games played.

For Fremantle midfielder Serong (No.3), that's 127 matches.

Geelong's Smith? An agonising 126 matches.

Serong takes the No.3 for the Vics, with Smith bumped out to 33 (although he did put in an overly optimistic back-up request for No.0).

Nick Daicos already publicly ceded the No.35 to Cats champion Patrick Dangerfield when the Collingwood superstar was selected back in November – saying "I think Danger deserves it" at his press conference – and has instead opted for the creative No.8 (3 + 5 = 8).

Jack Sinclair also had to make way for Dangerfield, mixing up the mathematical equation to end up with No.2 (5 – 3 = 2).

Toby Greene and Marcus Bontempelli have had their fair share of battles over the years, and the Victorian and Western Bulldogs skipper has triumphed in the fight for No.4, with Greater Western Sydney captain Greene shifting to No.1.

Shai Bolton and Bradley Hill have swapped numbers, although Hill has worn the No.10 in the past.

Noah Anderson has somehow won the race for No.15, despite having played fewer games than Blake Hardwick, while there's been some serious swapping at the top end of Western Australia, with Jaegar O'Meara (No.1), Chad Warner (No.5) and Luke Jackson (No.2, ceding the No.9 to state skipper Patrick Cripps) have all moved around.

And in a nod to their own origins, West Coast pair Jake Waterman (No.45) and Liam Baker (No.48) have reverted to their first AFL numbers.

VICTORIA

WESTERN AUSTRALIA