STATE-OF-ORIGIN football, or some form of it, will be considered on a rotational basis, possibly every three years, after AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said the concept could not be killed off.

Last week's Hall of Fame tribute game at the MCG, with a crowd of about 70,000 and strong broadcaster and seemingly player support, was considered a success, even if some, including Collingwood coach Michael Malthouse, observed that it was of low-wattage intensity.

There have been mixed views in the wider football community, with some strong support for a resurgence of some form of the state-of-origin concept, possibly every five years, or tied with the Olympics every four years.

Demetriou said there would not be a similar game next year but that it was likely to reappear. "I don't think we can kill it off," he said. "I think we've got to consider how it can be best used, how effective it can be if we have it, perhaps, on a cycle, but I'll be interested in getting feedback from all our stakeholders to see what ideas they've got.

"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."

Dream Team coach Mark Williams yesterday criticised those who were critical of the recent representative match. "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 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."

Despite Williams' enthusiasm and insistence on the authenticity of the product, a measure of the hold it had on those watching might have been measured by the Mexican wave that rolled around the ground to amuse the crowd in what should have been the tense final minutes.

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

In contrast to this, in his newspaper column yesterday, Malthouse said the AFL should dismiss calls for state-of-origin games to be resurrected or a version of the Hall of Fame game to be repeated.