Page "Australian rules football" Paragraph 8

With the lack of international competition, representative matches between state teams were regarded with great importance.

Originating from the early intercolonial matches, these tests continued well after Federation of Australia in 1901 and the Australian Football Council co-ordinated regular interstate carnivals.

In 1908, a Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival was held to celebrate 50 years of Australian Football.

The carnival included teams representing Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia and New Zealand.

Again, due primarily to the VFL recruiting the best players, Victoria dominated interstate matches for three quarters of a century.

Representative football was kept alive longer than the national club competition with the introduction of State of origin rules in 1977.

The new rules mean that rather than representing the state of their adopted club, players would return to play for the state they were first recruited in.

This instantly broke Victoria's stranglehold over state titles and Western Australia and South Australia began to win many of their games against Victoria.

Both New South Wales and Tasmania scored surprise victories at home against Victoria in 1990.