{"id":142540,"date":"2025-09-14T12:15:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T12:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/142540\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T12:15:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T12:15:15","slug":"wa-to-host-state-of-origins-return-as-afl-to-end-27-year-exile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/142540\/","title":{"rendered":"WA to host State of Origin\u2019s return as AFL to end 27-year exile"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time in more than two decades, State of Origin football will return with WA locked in to host the historic clash.<\/p>\n

As reported by The West Australian<\/a>, the WA government and the AFL struck a deal to bring back the showpiece event set for a return on February 14.<\/p>\n

While it was expected the AFL would officially announce its return after the grand final, that timeline has now been brought forward.<\/p>\n

It comes as AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon was in Perth on Sunday to present Fremantle with the AFLW western derby following their seven-point victory over West Coast.<\/p>\n

As expected, the game will be between a West Australian and Victorian team, with the majority of gate-day revenue to be pumped back into WA grassroots footy.<\/p>\n

The last time the two sides met was in 1992, when Victoria romped to a 23.19 (157) to 13.12 (90) win over WA at the MCG.<\/p>\n

It will see the likes of superstars Patrick Cripps and Chad Warner compete against Harley Reid, with the game to count towards players\u2019 pre-season schedule excusing them from another game.<\/p>\n

The push for the historic clash comes off the back of a clash between Fremantle and an Indigenous All Stars side at Optus Stadium in February, which was a raging success.<\/p>\n

State of Origin\u2019s inventor Leon Larkin backed the game\u2019s return in July, suggesting it would be a roaring success.<\/p>\n

\"FootballCamera IconFootball State of Origin 1977 – WA vs Victoria at Subiaco oval. Credit: Rod Taylor\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it will work,\u201d Larkin told The West Australian. \u201cBut for different reasons than the original one.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralian football players are now full-time professionals, and when you\u2019re a professional, you always want to test yourself at the highest level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best athletes in the world have the Olympics, Australian footballers have got nothing. They got this sort of mongrel game with Ireland occasionally, but they haven\u2019t got anything else.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the way that they can test themselves against the best is to play in something where they are tested at the very highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

It follows the hugely successful Indigenous All Stars match against Fremantle in February earlier this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in more than two decades, State of Origin football will return with WA locked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-142540","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-sport","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142540","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=142540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}