AFL football will return to Wagga with a bang next year when Richmond and Greater Western Sydney (GWS) meet in a pre-season game at Robertson Oval.
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The AFL announced it's fixture for next year's Marsh AFL Community Series on Monday that featured a grand final rematch to be held at Wagga.
It will be the first AFL fixture in the city since 2016 when Collingwood and North Melbourne met in March.
It has returned to the Riverina once since when Greater Western Sydney defeated West Coast in February 2017.
The fixture between the Giants and Tigers will undoubtedly be one of the biggest of the pre-season and could feature some of the biggest names in the game.
Dusty Martin, Jack Riewoldt, Alex Rance, Trent Cotchin and Tom Lynch could be just a few of the premiership Tigers in action.
The game is also likely to feature a strong local flavour with the Giants boasting a number of players from the Riverina.
The game will be played on Sunday, March 8 at 12.40pm.
AFL Southern NSW game development manager Marc Geppert said it was the perfect way for AFL football to return to the Riverina.
"Obviously it's a massive result for the entire region," Geppert said.
"To have the 2019 grand final replay, we honestly couldn't achieve a better result fixture wise.
"Obviously it's been a couple of years since we had an elite game in the region. With the drawing power of Richmond, the biggest club in the AFL, along with the Giants, who have a lot of boys from the region, on a Sunday where we won't clash with junior sport & cricket, it should be massive."
The AFL fixture continues a big line-up of professional sport to be held in Wagga over the past 12 months.
Canberra played Penrith in a fully-fledged NRL game at Equex Centre in May. This Sunday, Sydney FC will host Newcastle in a W League pre-season game at the same venue.
Wagga also hosted a Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) double header, featuring Sydney Thunder and Adelaide Strikers, in January last year.
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