The Australasia Championships (also known as State Games or Interstate Games) is an annual interstate Gaelic games tournament held over three to four days in early October. Competitions include senior and intermediate men’s and women’s football, hurling and camogie.
The first records of interstate games go back to 1951 where Victoria and New South Wales competed in annual games. These interstate games expanded to three teams in 1971 with the addition of South Australia, and the first ‘tri-state carnival’ was played in Melbourne.
June 1974 saw the first official national interstate championships take place on the weekend that our association was formed. In torrential conditions, New South Wales defeated Victoria to win the hurling while Victoria beat South Australia in the football final. Remarkably, the competition has been played most years since, which is quite the feat given the distances states travel and the logistics involved.
The first women’s football competition at the championships was played in 1995, with New South Wales winning the inaugural title. Success continued for the sky blues, while Auckland, Western Australia and Queensland also laid claim to national silverware in subsequent years. Camogie was introduced to the championships in 2011, and Queensland won the first title, followed by Western Australia and New South Wales. A men’s minor football championship was played up until 2018, but this has since been replaced by the Australasia Féile competition.
The competition has developed further in recent years with the popular inclusion of intermediate men’s (2018) and women’s football tournaments (2022), and regularly features over 500 players from across Australia and New Zealand.
Australasia Championships Roll of Honour
