{"id":142356,"date":"2025-09-14T10:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T10:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/142356\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T10:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T10:29:09","slug":"state-of-origin-to-return-in-2026-victoria-vs-western-australia-clash-in-perth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/142356\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin to return in 2026, Victoria vs Western Australia clash in Perth"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFL<\/a> State of Origin football is returning.<\/p>\n

The inter-state rivalry will make a comeback for the first time since 1999.<\/p>\n

According to 9News’ chief AFL reporter, Tom Morris, a formal announcement will come in the next 48 hours to confirm that State of Origin will be rebooted next season, with a blockbuster clash between Western Australia and Victoria.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Broncos pull off stunning comeback in 94-minute finals epic<\/a><\/p>\n

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The highly anticipated match is scheduled for February 14, 2026, at Perth’s Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n

This move is a cornerstone of chief executive Andrew Dillon’s plan to inject fresh, high-value events into the football calendar, tapping into the enduring passion for representative footy and giving fans a new spectacle to kick off the season.<\/p>\n

Details on player availability and the long-term future of the concept are expected to be included in the official announcement.<\/p>\n

The AFL last held a one-off State of Origin match for bushfire relief in February 2020.<\/p>\n

\"Trent<\/p>\n

Trent Cotchin, Patrick Dangerfield, Scott Pendlebury and Todd Goldstein all donned the ‘Big V’ in 2020.\u00a0Paul Rovere via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL State of Origin football is returning. The inter-state rivalry will make a comeback for the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-142356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}