State Football Returns in 2023

The Perth Football League and Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) are excited to announce a two-year agreement has been reached that will see Men’s and Women’s representative matches played between the two competitions in 2023 and 2024.

The VAFA will host a Senior Men’s and a Senior Women’s representative match at Elsternwick Park during the A Grade bye weekend on Saturday 15 July. The Perth Football League will reciprocate and host the representative game at a date to be confirmed in 2024.

This will mark a historic occasion, being the first time a double header will take place for PFL Men’s and Women’s representative sides against opposition outside of WA.

Perth Football League CEO Andrew Dawe was excited to enter into a two-year agreement that sees his competition fly east this season.

“It’s a great opportunity to reward the PFL’s stronger performers as well as provide an opportunity for coaches and umpires to represent WA in higher honours,” Dawe said.

“There’s no doubt that representing your state is a career highlight for any footballer and I know everyone involved in this double header will relish the opportunity.

“Both the PFL and VAFA have a rich history of state football and the return of senior representative football between these two proud competitions is incredibly significant for our men’s and women’s teams.”

The Perth Football League’s Men’s representative side has been running since 1934 and last played a senior match against the VAFA’s premier side 20 years ago.

The Women’s representative program was established in 2021 and has faced the WA Country Football League for the last two years running.

VAFA CEO Jason Reddick was ecstatic that representative football was returning to the VAFA football calendar.

“We are thrilled to provide both our VAFA Men’s and Women’s players with the opportunity of playing representative football for the first time since 2019,” Reddick said.

“Donning the ‘Big V’ has always been a proud experience for our VAFA players, who will be presented with their Big V guernseys at the annual Big V lunch at the RACV club on Friday 14^th July.

“Next to the VAFA, Perth Football League is one of the largest senior football competitions in Australia and it will be a great occasion to see the cream of the competitions battle it for interstate honours on an upgraded Elsternwick Park.”