'TAKE NO prisoners' is the state-against-state tradition the players have vowed to continue in Saturday night's NAB AFL Women's State of Origin game at Etihad Stadium.
Club friendships will be temporarily put aside as Victoria attempts to establish its dominance and the Allies strive to upset the Big V.
Victorian captain and coach Daisy Pearce and Debbie Lee and their Allies counterparts Chelsea Randall and Bec Goddard were at Etihad Stadium on Thursday morning to discuss the upcoming match.
"Once you're out there I don't think [club mateships] come into it. It's just, 'Try and win the contest, try and win the ball'," Victorian captain Daisy Pearce said.
"But we're on the eve of our [VFL] finals, so hopefully I don't end up in the firing line of any of my teammates and vice-versa. You would hate for anyone to get injured, but it's not something you can afford to think about when you run out for a contest like this.
"I'm playing VFLW [for the Darebin Falcons] with Eb Marinoff who won the [NAB AFLW] Rising Star award and won the premiership with the Crows. She's a gun to play with and now we're against her. There are good match-ups everywhere you look.
"The Allies have a strong forward line with Katie Brennan, Sabrina Frederick-Traub and Tayla Harris, but if the midfield is good enough, we shouldn't have to worry about it."
Allies coach Bec Goddard, who steered the Adelaide Crows to AFLW premiership glory, recalled the hurt and humiliation from massive defeats at the hands of Victorian representative teams during her playing days.
One of those losses was against a Victorian team featuring Lee, who is Melbourne’s AFLW football operations manager and also coaches VFLW team, VU Western Spurs.
Goddard will have Fremantle coach Michelle Cowan and Brisbane Lions coach Craig Starcevich as her deputies on Saturday night to help plot her payback.
"Bec has done an extremely good job of bringing groups together from different parts of the country…and it should be an extraordinary contest," Allies captain Chelsea Randall said.
Pearce said the acceptance of the AFLW's inaugural season would allow both teams to play with the freedom that was missing in last year's exhibition game.
"It will be a higher quality game because we'll be running out there with not so much to prove. I know the first few rounds of AFLW and particularly the first quarters of exhibition games have been scrappy and chaotic.
"This year with our experiences and the fact AFLW is here to stay, we can go into the game relaxed in a good way. And that should transfer into the style of game that we will see," the midfield ace said.
"State of origin is something footy people speak about and miss. It just adds another dynamic to an already complex puzzle for some of us.
"We play against each other in AFLW and then back with each other in the [state competition] format. ‘Chels’ and I remember playing together for Melbourne in the exhibition games, so there are so many different byplays.
"But what an opportunity. All the banter is pretty light-hearted and we're looking forward to getting out there and playing with the best of the best.
"The thing that makes them such great players is their versatility, so where everyone will line up is a bit of a mystery. There's going to be some great battles wherever you look."
Entry to Saturday night’s NAB AFL Women’s state of origin match at Etihad Stadium is free. The match will be streamed live on AFL.com.au from 7.30pm EST.
