AFL Women's State Of Origin Match Scrapped

Last year's AFLW State of Origin drew more than 9,000 fans to Etihad Stadium.GETTY IMAGES

The Australian Football League Women's State of Origin game was "scrapped" after just one year, with the AFL citing state league finals and "extended breaks taken by some of the game's stars" as reasons for the match's absence from this year's schedule," according to Daniel Cherny of THE AGE. A crowd of more than 9,000 attended Etihad Stadium last year when Victoria beat the Allies by 97 points on the Saturday of the bye weekend between round 23 and the finals of the men’s season. The match was broadcast live by Channel Seven. However, with players like Daisy Pearce "taking a sabbatical from the game this winter" and others preparing for Victoria Football League Women's finals, the AFL decided not to play the game this year. A U18 exhibition match involving the country’s best young female talent "will instead be played" before the E.J. Whitten Legends game in Adelaide next Friday (THE AGE, 8/23).