South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas is intent on bringing State of Origin football to his state.<\/p>\n
As Perth prepares to host the comeback of AFL Origin between Western Australia and Victoria on February 14, Malinauskas has spoken of his desire for SA to host the game in future years.<\/p>\n
The state has done a superb job hosting Gather Round and now the Premier is setting his sights on Origin.<\/p>\n
He sees South Australia\u2019s history of being more than competitive against Victoria as a major consideration for a potential clash with the Big V.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuite frankly, and I\u2019ll be a bit parochial because I am a Premier after all,\u201d Malinauskas began on SEN\u2019s Whateley.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Croweaters have a better record than the Sandgropers when it comes to beating the Victorians if you look over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if the AFL is serious about State of Origin footy then clearly South Australia has a role to play. We want to see games here (in Adelaide).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made no secret about the fact that I love State of Origin footy going back. I grew up as a kid really getting into it, but was the only time I was willing to get behind Crows players.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I love it coming back. We\u2019re in discussions with the AFL, we want to see an extension to Gather Round in South Australia, those negotiations remain ongoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made no secret to the AFL that I want to see State of Origin at Adelaide Oval as much as I want to see it at Optus Stadium and the MCG.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want to make sure we\u2019re in consideration of the AFL\u2019s deliberations on this in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the February date of this year\u2019s Origin could perhaps cause some consternation in Adelaide if they are successful in landing a game in future years.<\/p>\n
In March last year, the AFL blocked the Sheffield Shield Final between SA and Queensland from being played at Adelaide Oval, and there could be similar conflicts in the future if all organisations are not on the same page.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe South Australian Government and I have behalf frustrations in the way that cricket and footy play with each other around access to Adelaide Oval in those periods between cricket and footy,\u201d the Premier added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was disappointed that the AFL didn\u2019t facilitate the Sheffield Shield Final being at Adelaide Oval. And vis-\u00e0-vis I\u2019d be very upset if cricket didn\u2019t facilitate State of Origin footy at Adelaide Oval early in the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to find a way to get this resolved in South Australia and that\u2019s something I\u2019ve been turning my mind to with Stadium Management Authority, the SACA, the SANFL and AFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have no hesitation to be interventionists if we think if it\u2019s in the state\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas is intent on bringing State of Origin football to his state. As Perth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-465942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465942","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=465942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}