{"id":642736,"date":"2026-05-01T12:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T12:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/642736\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T12:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T12:52:12","slug":"afl-origin-wa-to-play-south-australia-in-perth-in-2027-after-return-of-concept-against-victoria-in-february","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/642736\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL Origin: WA to play South Australia in Perth in 2027 after return of concept against Victoria in February"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the hugely-successful return of AFL Origin in Perth earlier this year, a new opponent will head west to take on WA in 2027.<\/p>\n

State Government sources have confirmed to The West Australian a deal has been agreed for the State-against-State representative clash to remain at Optus Stadium for the second year running, with the hosts to take on against South Australia.<\/p>\n

On Thursday night, 7NEWS chief football reporter Mitch Cleary reported AFL clubs had been informed of the agreement over the preceding 24 hours.<\/p>\n

A sold-out crowd of 58,141 people \u2014 including thousands of fans from interstate \u2014 flocked to Optus Stadium to see WA take on Victoria on February 14 in the first Origin game since 1999.<\/p>\n

WA were gallant but went down to the star-studded visitors by 24 points, trimming the margin to one goal in the final term before being defeated 18.17 (125) to 15.11 (101).<\/p>\n

On Friday, Deputy Premier and Sports Minister Rita Saffioti turned down the chance to confirm WA would take on the Croweaters next year, but said \u201cbeating anyone is quite satisfying\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having really constructive talks with the AFL,\u201d Saffioti said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t confirm any of those details. I know there\u2019s been some reports around the nation, but as I said, we\u2019re still in discussions and deliberations, so I don\u2019t want to pre-empt those.<\/p>\n

\"WACamera IconWA took on Victoria in AFL Origin\u2019s return in 2026. Credit: Paul Kane\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of criticism or scepticism, I\u2019d say, from a lot of people around the nation about State of Origin . . . we brought it back, we made it a success, and we want to keep it here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saffioti also did not comment on whether the State Government would pay less to secure a game against SA than they did against Victoria, citing \u201ccommercial discussions between the tourism agency and the AFL\u201d.<\/p>\n

Immediately after February\u2019s game, AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon \u2014 who played a key role in the return of the concept \u2014 confirmed Origin would be back in some form in 2027, but would not be drawn on the teams involved or the location.<\/p>\n

WA coach Dean Cox led calls for the game to remain in Perth, and even his Victorian counterpart Chris Scott said the State had earned \u201cthe front running\u201d to host the event after a hugely-popular week-long celebration of football in one of the final weeks of summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what you saw the WA Government, WA Tourism and the WA public showed that they\u2019ll support it, no matter what time of the year it comes,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n

SA\u2019s side for their first clash with WA since 1998 could feature St Kilda superstar Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera and two-time Brownlow medalist Lachie Neale.<\/p>\n

The AFL have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the hugely-successful return of AFL Origin in Perth earlier this year, a new opponent will head west…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[638,49082,64,63,44,588],"class_list":["post-642736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-afl","tag-afl-state-of-origin","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642736","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=642736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}