Expert
The Adelaide Crows have become the first team to win an AFLX tournament, with an eight-point victory over visitors Geelong in the final at Hindmarsh Stadium on Thursday night.
Final score
Geelong 47
Adelaide 55
We’ll get our first taste of the newest format of Australian Rules Football – AFLX – tonight, in the first of three six-team tournaments. Join The Roar for live scores updates and a blog of AFLX Adelaide at Hindmarsh Stadium on Thursday night, starting from 6:40pm AEDT.
Tonight we’ll see the Adelaide Crows, Port Adelaide Power, Fremantle Dockers, West Coast Eagles, Geelong Cats and Collingwood Magpies go head to head in search of being the first team to claim victory in an AFLX tournament.
The six teams are being split into two pools of three, with those pools then playing a round robin – so two matches per team.
At the end of the night, the highest finishers in each pool will play off in the ‘grand final’ of the evening, with the winner taking home the trophy.
So, what do we know about AFLX? Well, if you’re looking for the basics of how the rules work, you can read them here on The Roar.
Basically it’s AFL on a small scale, with probably a far too excessive amount of hype factor thrown in for (hopefully good) luck.
Silver footballs, ‘zooper’ goals worth ten points, rectangular stadiums – it might be a bit hard to recognise the code at first.
Will we get any real insight tonight into the clubs and players who take the field, and how they might go when the real thing starts? Probably not, in all honesty.
Still, colour me intrigued at least. I doubt the first appearance of AFLX will be at all what we want to it be – but perhaps with enough tweaks over time and less red cordial spread around in the AFL Executive room, this could grow into something worthwhile.
In terms of the squads named, they’re fairly light on established talent, but there’s a number of draftees we may get to see in action for the first time tonight.
Andrew Brayshaw, Jaidyn Stephenson and Jarrod Brander are three in particular that I’ll be keeping my eye on tonight.
Thursday 15 February – Hindmarsh Stadium | ||
Pool | Match | Time (AEDT) |
A | Port Adelaide vs Geelong | 6:40 PM |
B | Adelaide vs Collingwood | 7:08 PM |
A | Geelong vs Fremantle | 7:36 PM |
B | West Coast vs Adelaide | 8:04 PM |
A | Fremantle vs Port Adelaide | 8:32 PM |
B | Collingwood vs West Coast Eagles | 9:00 PM |
GF | Pool A winner vs Pool B winner | 9:33 PM |
In terms of clubs being willing to name star players, Port Adelaide have made the biggest inclusion by bringing in Robbie Gray. They’ve also got Trent McKenzie, whose thunderous kick will be perfectly suited for this form of the game. Plus, they’re at home, albeit not a home they’re used to. I’m tipping the Power to be the first AFLX champs.
Join The Roar for live scores updates and a blog of AFLX Adelaide at Hindmarsh Stadium on Thursday night, starting from 6:40pm AEDT.