State of Origin

State of Origin is the name used in Australia for Rugby League and Australian Rules Football interstate matches, in which players must be selected for the state in which they first played. The concept was devised to address the drift of most of the talented players to the New South Wales Rugby League and the Victorian Football League respectively.

The first such game was an Australian Rules game between Victoria and Western Australia at Subiaco Oval in Perth in 1977. Games involving all of the other states soon followed. Although the Australian Rules State of Origin games were initally popular, they declined in attendance and interest following the formation of a national club competition, the AFL, in the 1980s. No matches have been held since 1999.

The two Rugby League states, New South Wales and Queensland, emulated the concept for the first time in 1980. Compared to the Australian Rules variety, the Rugby League State of Origin matches went from strength to strength, and they remain one of Australia's biggest sporting events: a record crowd of 88,336 was achieved in 1999 at Stadium Australia in Sydney and the record for the annual three game series was set in 2003, when 183,691 people attended.