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 tal

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