The AFL is slowly warming to the reintroduction of State of Origin football in the washup from Saturday night's Hall of Fame tribute match.

On the same day that Dream Team coach Mark Williams hit back at criticism of the game, calling the negative comments "absolute rubbish", league chief executive Andrew Demetriou made it clear that State of Origin was back on the radar.

"I don't think we can kill it off, we've got to consider how it can be best-used, how effective it can be if we have it perhaps on a cycle," Demetriou said.

"We certainly wouldn't do it every year, we certainly wouldn't do it every second year, what format it takes, we'll wait and see."

Only a few minutes after Saturday night's game between Victoria and the composite Dream Team, Demetriou said it was a one-off and added "it's not on our radar to do it again next year".

Meanwhile, Williams strongly defended Saturday's game, particularly against criticism that it lacked authenticity.

So convinced is Williams of the genuine player and team enthusiasm elicited by the event that he believes no-one would hesitate to take part if the AFL scheduled another Dream Team match for the mid-season break.

"Listening to all the absolute rubbish that's gone on in the last few days about the event and were they serious or not, I listen for a second on Jonathan Brown, and he was in the opposition, but I can guarantee our players were fully focused on it," Williams said.

"They worked really hard at getting a result, three minutes to go we were one goal down and we were really disappointed about losing it.

"If they played again in five weeks time during the break everyone would line up again for it, because that's how much everyone enjoyed being part of it.

"There was real passion involved, brilliant skills and you're kidding yourself if you want to complain about it."

Williams' enthusiasm for the concept was backed up emphatically by his players' words, but there remains a level of cynicism about the open nature of the game itself.

This relates to the MCG crowd's decision to break into a Mexican Wave in what should have been a nerve-wracking final few minutes.

But an attendance near 70,000 and impressive television ratings have helped encourage Demetriou to re-think the future of representative matches.

"I know he's really pleased about the numbers," Williams said of Demetriou.

"There's no doubt if you put the best players together and have them keen about playing, you'll get a great result."

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