AFL CEO Andrew Dillon confirmed to Channel Seven on Sunday that the battle between Western Australia and Victoria in front of 58,000 people at Perth's Optus Stadium was everything the league was hoping for - and more.
There was understandable scepticism leading into the match about whether the players and the supporters really wanted Origin in an already squeezed sporting calendar at a time of year where players would be risking injury just a few weeks out from the beginning of what matters most - the home and away season.
But as thousands of yellow shirts began filing into the Optus Stadium seating bowl, it didn't take long for the fans to be treated to a spectacle that evidently meant something to those on-field.
All players attacked the game with an intensity and a passion befitting of what State of Origin was at its peak in the 1980s, and whilst the Vics came out on top as 24-point winners having led all but the opening ten minutes, it was a competitive affair throughout.
The high scoring from both teams was earned and not gifted, as it can so often be in modern All-Star and representative games (see the NBA as an example, where defence is completely shelved and almost 400 points racked up in the 2024 edition).
But just how much of the on-field passion came from the 26-year absence rather than the concept itself, with some of the game's best modern players now able to finally put a Big V jumper in their closets before retirement.
Two of them, Victoria captain Marcus Bontempelli and niggly small forward Toby Greene, had the highest of praises for the game.
"If you make a mistake, you got punished, that's for sure. That midfield craft (Daicos, Bontempelli, Serong) was pretty special to lead to," Greene said.
"I would rather play this than a practice game, that's for sure."
"It is the first proper game of the year for everyone, so at times it'll look a little scratchy, but at other times it just looked absolutely crisp," Bontempelli added.
"When you talk about intent and feeling, there was plenty of that, and I think the crowd did a great job of making it so.
"We hope this is the start of something. We wore that like a badge of honour, with pride as an opportunity to set this up for real and to last. The players want to do so this.
The players went all-in on this one and I hope the AFL and fans invest in it. Both teams had a lot of support from all the clubs who donated support staff."
What's in store for 2027?
Whilst the AFL has confirmed Origin will be back in some form next year, there are a lot of details to be ironed out.
The Western Australia state government reportedly spent millions in setting up the Origin clash of 2026 and it has paid off to some extent with all revenue from the match - reportedly in the vicinity of $1.5 million - to be reinvested back into WA grassroots football.
Premier Roger Cook and Tourism Minister Reece Whitby hailed the success of the event and declared Perth to be the 'home of State of Origin footy'.
“We’ve got a rightful claim on the Origin format, given it was born here and the greatest rivalry is between WA and Victoria,” Whitby said.
“We will work very hard with the AFL (to secure future events). I think we’ve shown that we can pull this off and do it magnificently.”
The logical next step is for South Australia, the third point of AFL's Origin triangle, to be just as involved going forward.
State government subsidisation is likely to play a pivotal rule in future Origin games, and South Australia's appetite for marquee sport under current Premier Peter Malinauskas is insatiable, particularly with the annual Gather Round now an overwhelming success.
That would require the introduction of a fourth team, with the 'Allies' composite side of all other states the logical choice, though whether their players would be as keen to risk pre-season injury to not even represent their own state is a question yet to be answered.
Similarly, now that 50 players have earned the state guernsey that some of them were craving for more than a decade, how badly will they want a second next year?
One other option is for Western Australia and Victoria to return to Perth in 2027 on the basis that the losing side will be replaced by South Australia in 2028, generating additional on-field incentive to win the match to ensure representative rights are again up for grabs the following year.
However, the thought of a year of State of Origin without Victoria would almost certainly be unpalatable to AFL House and its broadcasters, given the large number of star players who would be absent.
The AFL is not expected to be in a hurry to sort out the details, but two things are for sure: 2026 Origin was a winner, and the most important stakeholders are hungry for more.
