The punchline to every current joke about the AFL can be boiled down to memes involving a bemused Gillon McLachlan alongside circus performers at that infamous AFLX 2018 launch.
In some ways it’s fair game, as in one photoshoot it appeared that all things that we true believers hold so dear were being mocked. Not true of course, but that’s the narrative of the social media slandering that followed.
It became a stick to beat the AFL with over any perceived injustice – insert neglected cause (AFLW, junior footy, country footy etc) before “…but instead they’ve spent a fortune on AFLX”. An easy but understandable pile-on.
So at the risk of losing all credibility in the Twitterverse, and at the risk of alienating a small but loyal band of footy romantics that listen to a podcast I’m involved with, I want to make a confession: I’m all chips in for AFLX.
(Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)
I’m sorry, just hear me out.
So strip back the marketing palava for a second, what is AFLX?
In essence, it’s a tool to legitimise a condensed format of the game.
Yes, it might sell a few tickets, it might draw eyeballs to TVs, but they are happy by-products of creating a smaller game of footy which brings about new possibilities.
Often this means the often-ridiculed international dream or the often-reviled northern states push. The thing is that kids picking up a footy for the first time whether they’re in Traralgon, Tamworth or Thailand will be attracted by the same things.
A condensed game has fewer players, smaller grounds, less time and more scoring. It helps.
Currently, you need 18 players to have a junior footy team that competes properly.
That’s fine in urban and populated areas full of generational football fans.
It’s not so good in other places. As a comparison, basketball teams need five kids to get started and only goes for 40 minutes.
Fish Creek Football Club has garnered publicity in recent times as a lightning rod for the problems in country footy, and while they have their issues with AFL interference, something like AFLX can help.
Currently Fish Creek can’t field a team at Under 10, 12 and 14s level, instead they share in a combined team with other clubs some distance away. It’s acknowledged that this is a significant issue for country clubs, but also metropolitan clubs in ageing areas. How do Fish Creek keep those kids through to Under 18 level when they aren’t there from the start?
If a format like AFLX was legitimised and marketed well to kids, Fish Creek would likely have the numbers to field teams in this format.
(Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
It’s the same at many smaller country clubs where you see netball teams right down the age groups but combined regional football teams – this is simply due to the number needed to play netball versus football.
The same principle applies to clubs that would dearly love to start a junior girls team, but do not have the numbers. We’re often told great stories of clubs that have grown their girls team numbers spectacularly over the last few years – but there are many more that can’t because of a lack of numbers.
The reverse applies for thriving areas. If you’re in a high socioeconomic, highly educated demographic with great wholesome kids that love playing sport, you’re likely in an inner suburb and your club is overflowing with sides.
They aren’t making more footy ground in landlocked inner suburbs so you cannot grow. This means you’re not growing where the population is growing.
So it’s in footy’s interests to find a way for it to grow – AFLX is the way it could grow as its better use of physical space (multiple games on a field) and more adaptable to non-footy spaces.
And of course, there are the simple practicalities of giving a kid a better experience.
Dinosaurs reigned down with indignation when Cricket Australia introduced new junior formats for beginners that *gasp* allowed kids to bat more than one ball an innings if they went out, and *shock horror* gave kids an even number of balls to bat and bowl. Clearly, it was to blame for every cricket ill.
But no, it’s an unqualified success as more kids get a better experience, and are more likely to keep playing.
AFLX has that ability for footy; fewer players, smaller ground, more kids get more touches of the ball, kick more goals and go home with more smiles.
But it’s not just feelgood kumbaya around a campfire stuff – if you get more opportunities to touch the ball in a match, you’ll become a better player. The argument cricket traditionalists make about holding back talent is irrelevant in AFLX.
Remember those cricket dinosaurs are also involved in footy, and greatly modified forms of the game have not made it through those barriers before. AFLX is marketing directly to the kids on this one, skipping the dinosaurs – perhaps the criticism is music to their ears.
Having the best of the best play it for one night makes it real for kids.
I don’t like the circus, I don’t know what a bolt or a dolt or a flyer or whatever else means, and I’d prefer this was promoted and marketed around a grassroots club theme.
But I know that eight- or ten-a-side junior footy makes sense. And I know that whatever AFLX costs cannot be redirected by the AFL into moving people into areas that people are moving out of.
I’m also told the Bolts versus The Dolts appeals to nine-year-olds, which would explain why it doesn’t speak to me at all.
It may not have been clearly communicated but AFLX exists to ensure the future of junior footy. This includes girls’ footy, boys’ footy, country footy, overseas and in the heartland – the whole box and dice.
Watch or don’t watch it – but look a little deeper as to why it’s here.
ren
Guest
Are you from the country? Are you from one of the towns that doesn't have a footy team any more? I am, we haven't had a team for 10 years now. It sucks. No cars parked around the ground, no speccies behind the goals. This article identifies the issue that the AFL didn't identify. Sure when we play we don't have any rules different to usual, no special scoring but now we can play.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
Tried watching it but couldn't. Felt like a parody of our great game.
anon
Roar Pro
Agreed mate
Mick Jeffrey
Roar Rookie
Personally laughing at the argument that this "format" can keep YOUTH (not junior, juniors are Under 7's-11's) footballers in the game. What takes them away from the game is outside influences such as study, employment (particularly as just about every country town has shops open till 4 or 5 in the afternoon on weekends and need cheap staff to keep up with demand) and social life. Even an hour is too much for those kids. No amount of money or marketing can compete with a part time job that offers some sort of financial independence, and spending time with friends in their own car afterwards. Of course financially the clubs and even the leagues will see zero financial benefit from this format. Everything is either funelled into Auskick programs (of which a good percentage is run via schools rather than clubs) or to prop up the salaries of paid positions at administrative level. In terms of multiple spaces, you still need upwards of 100m length when many grounds can only cater for a length that is 150-160 metres before the fence kicks in (the fence being a requirement of governing bodies rather than an OH&S strategy). Unless there are multiple grounds in an area, and usually in most of the country towns spoken of in the article there's lucky to be a single oval suitable for use and most of the rectangular fields are used by other sports, there's no way a team can host multiple games at the same time. Up here there was an AFLX event held last weekend, basically as a sponsors promotion rather than seeking to expand the game. The club I'm involved with showed minimal interest hastily cobbling together 7 players to make up the numbers for the men's comp and pulled the pin on the women's. Another club didn't even bother showing up at all, and that was after a rebrand to make themselves more marketable to youth and junior participants. Indeed our women's team has gone from basically scrambling weekly to find 9 players (the minimum allowed in women's footy up here) to having 18-20 each week on the back of an association with a local high school, who from my understanding NEVER played a game of AFLX but picked up the game from reaching the statewide finals of a high school football competition for 2 years running.
IAP
Guest
Did you read the article? Apparently AFLX is going to save country footy.
Aligee
Roar Rookie
Agree with many of the points in the article, I dislike the scoring system, the jumpers, the overhype and the teams but I actually really like the game, perhaps it is a bit to open but I like the concept and always have of a smaller sided game, as someone who has seen many kids give the game away when you have 40 kids which is far to many for one team but not nearly enough for two.
WCE
Roar Rookie
Complete and utter embarrassment. This is nothing more than kindergarten kiddie crap. Anyone who thinks is a great advertisement for our great is utterly delusional. Face painting and balloons... really!!! This is our national game???
Dwanye
Roar Rookie
sheild schedule. Again for benefit of bbl
Jordan Klingsporn
Roar Guru
????????????????????????????????????????
Dwanye
Roar Rookie
Administration over saturating bbl money for shield competition.
Jordan Klingsporn
Roar Guru
Not true.
Dwanye
Roar Rookie
Batsmen having no defensive technique.
Jordan Klingsporn
Roar Guru
Mate I'm with you. All the criticism with T20 Cricket I've never really understood. They've told me that it's ruining the game. I've asked many times as to why that's the case and no explanation has been given. With AFLX, it's the exact same. You make a good point about Fish Creek FC. I assume that's your club.
Jordan Klingsporn
Roar Guru
IAP AFLX is never going to take over the real game. Its just a nice refreshing 1 night look at our game.
IAP
Guest
This article is ridiculous. AFLX is ridiculous. Footy without 18 a side on an oval is not footy. If the suggestions in this article were adopted it would signal an acceptance of the death of our great game. Rather than funnelling money from the heartland into the latest fad the AFL should be supporting the heartland.
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
Very interesting how the message has morphed from “lack of suitable oval grounds across the country/internationally to showcase the game so we need something where we can play on rectangular grounds” to “it’s all about the kids and the kids will love it”. Why the assumption that kids need this version of the game rather than the traditional version? The fanboys (whether media e.g. Gerard Wheatley, players being paid e.g. Dangerfield, AFL officials e.g. McLachlan) are doing their level best to make it all about the kids but isn’t that what AUS Kick is for? Introduce the rules on smaller ovals, with players in zones, to encourage touches of the footy and active participation? Then as players grow up they play on proper sized ovals with all the usual rules. BTW I don’t blame Dangerfield or Fyfe for taking the money to play and talk up AFLX, if my employer came to me and said “Would you embarrass yourself for a couple of hours on Friday night and if you say yes we will give you $50K no questions asked” I would also say yes and tow the company line. Zooper goals, Gatorade players etc. is a mockery of the game that people truly follow. The AFL are being laughed at by all and sundry yet they are so arrogant that will almost certainly tell everyone that tonight was a raging success.