PERTH (Reuters) - In a rare departure from club-based competition, the Australian Football League (AFL) on Saturday showcased the country's top Aboriginal players who united as the Indigenous All-Stars for an exhibition match against the Fremantle Dockers in Perth.
The All-Stars won comfortably 16.12 (108) to 9.11 (65) against hosts Fremantle, but the result of the pre-season friendly runs secondary to the intrigue the league created by its fixture scheduling, raising the possibility of an expanded AFL calendar rewarding players beyond the club level.
"Hopefully the AFL, and us, can have this on a more regular basis because we do love getting together and playing. It's such an awesome spectacle, I reckon the crowd loved it," All-Stars midfielder Jy Simpkin told reporters.
An International Rules series, incorporating elements of the Gaelic code, had once given Australian players the chance to regularly represent their country against Ireland. It was shelved in 2017 although the AFL last year expressed interest in a revival.
'State of Origin' was another Australian Rules mainstay until its 1999 cessation, with one-off invitationals involving Victoria and combined rest-of-Australia teams staged in 2008 and 2020 after the format was effectively ceded to the National Rugby League (NRL).
The annual three-match NRL series between fierce rivals New South Wales and Queensland commands immense public interest and stellar television ratings, offering a compelling blueprint for the AFL.
The Perth Stadium crowd of 37,865 for the Indigenous exhibition, the first such match since 2015, demonstrates public support for out-of-season representative competition.
Critics fear the injury risk for players in an already-busy schedule is too great, however, and securing buy-in from clubs eager to protect their stars remains the major sticking point for future expansion.
(Reporting by Joel Dubber in Perth; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
