AFL stars Patrick Cripps and Andrew Brayshaw have thrown their support behind the return of State of Origin as the revival of the exhibition grows momentum.
The resurrection of State of Origin, which hasn’t been officially played since 1999, is on the cards amid reports of a an AFL fixture revamp from 2026.
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon confirmed last week State of Origin would be discussed at a meeting between all 18 club CEOs in
South Australia during Gather Round, emphasising the importance of players getting behind it.
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And Cripps, who’s originally from Western Australia but has played his entire career at Carlton, and Brayshaw, who’s from Victoria but served his entire AFL tenure at Fremantle, said they’d both “love to play” if the format returned.
Blues skipper Cripps suggested there was “overwhelming” support from AFL club captains across the board.
“You might never get the chance to represent your state,” Cripps said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“In juniors, like under 15s, 16s, 18s, I’ve got some of my best mates still from those days. You go away together, you have a bit of a camp, it’s the pride of your home state.
“For both of us (he and Brayshaw), who play in different states, I think it would mean a lot.”
It comes after the Indigenous All Stars returned in the pre-season for the first time in a decade, facing Fremantle in Perth in February.
Cripps thinks it’s the ideal time to play exhibition games.
“I think there’s a bit of a gap now in the program where we can have it, that mid-Feb slot, we’re doing intra-club matches anyway,” the Blues skipper continued.
“Everyone says it’s high risk (for injuries) but we’re playing games anyway, every time you train there’s a risk.
“I think it’d be great, I think the All Stars game was great to watch. Everyone had a thirst for footy already in Feb, so it’d be nice to get it going and be nice for WA and the Vics to kick it off next year.”
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Brayshaw said he’d “definitely love to” pull on the Victorian guernsey.
“We showed you can play a big game in the All-Stars game,” the Fremantle midfielder added.
“There’s no reason why other clubs wouldn’t be able to put their players up to play in the State of Origin game.”
Garry Lyon, who played 10 State of Origin games for Victoria and captained the Victorian side, also hoped to see the format return.
“This is why it has to happen. The notion of Andrew coming home once and playing in front of his home crowd, and Patty going back home (to WA), that’s the romantic part of it all,” the AFL 360 co-host said.
“All of a sudden you hook up with mates you probably played underage footy with. It’s got to happen once in their careers, hopefully twice would be ideal.”
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