State of Origin: AFL CEO Andrew Dillon confident the league’s best players will feature in WA v Victoria clash

The passion displayed by Carlton captain and West Australian star Patrick Cripps for the return of Origin football was one of the key reasons the AFL revived the concept and scheduled a game between WA and Victoria at Optus Stadium next year, according to AFL CEO Andrew Dillon.

Western Australia will host Victoria at Optus Stadium on February 14 in what will be the first AFL state of origin game this century. the league has re-branded the match as AFL Origin and Dillon said the concept wouldn’t have been revived without the players wanting it to happen.

“It’s the conversations we’ve had with the players,” Dillon said.

“We’ve been talking about this for a couple of years. Earlier in the year when we had all of the club captains, I was lucky enough to sit next to Patrick Cripps and we talked about it. I could see how much it meant to him if that opportunity could happen.

“Like the All-Stars game earlier this year, when the players buy in, the clubs buy in and then the fans buy in so we’re really looking forward to it. We’ve had a generation or two of players who haven’t had that opportunity. It is so important.”

Dillon said other states would have opportunities to play into the future but it made sense for WA and Victoria to play each other as Origin’s re-launch given they played the first match in 1977.

The Indigenous all-Stars game against Fremantle in February attracted the game’s biggest names and had the support of AFL clubs. Players will be paid to represent their states and while the clubs were reluctant to release players in the past, Dillon expects the AFL’s stars to make themselves available.

“We’ve been talking with the clubs. Ultimately if the players buy in, the clubs buy in,” he said.

“Ultimately it’s about us playing games that the fans want. We know the fans will flock to this game.”