Hey Krusty,
Vaustralia is filled with highly experienced First Officers, all of whom I have been honored to be associated with and all of whom deserve a chance at command on the B777.
As far as seniority goes, we have none at Vaustralia. Having said that, I was the oldest First Officer in the first class at V and my experience ranks right there with the other 3 in my class. I would be happy to fly with any of the other 3 as either their Captain, or their First Officer.
So in my case, I believe that experience, merit and seniority were satisified. Hope that clears it up a bit.
As a side note, we can compare to Jetstar, which has a strict seniority system, but management "manipulates" the command requirements to allow more junior "mates" to be promoted ahead of more senior "non" mates. At least Vaustralia is honest about this.