Afl X WAS AWESOME

[Unknown Identity]

Fantastic game for local comps, or social games in the park.
Even would be great for school sports.

But as a professional sport that you want to market Nationally and then Globally, it has no future.

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

I think the worst thing is how boring it is.

But to be fair, all pre-season games are boring.


At least with this format, it's over quickly.

 

[Xtreme]

Fantastic game for local comps, or social games in the park.
Even would be great for school sports.

But as a professional sport that you want to market Nationally and then Globally, it has no future.

Could say the same about AFLW

 

[Carringbush2010]

Severely lacked grunt and contest, made the skills look good.

 

[Connoisseur]

I loved afl x. I only watched wce but really showed our kids well.

If it was nab cup it would have been one sided low scoring.

Showed our fwds quite well.

Good joob AFL.

It was better than anything served up by the AFLW that's for sure.

 

[threesixpio]

Obviously, the comparison with T20 is the one that was brought up most often in the build up to tonight. However, they seem to have missed a lot of the point about what makes T20 work as a spectacle. In T20 cricket, they haven't changed the dimensions of the ground, the wickets or the stumps. The scoring is still the same as in the other forms of cricket. The size of the ball is the same. However, T20, through its truncated nature, encourages the most exciting and entertaining parts of the sport to occur more regularly (in the eyes of most people - Test fans can appreciate attritional cricket and the contest between batsman and bowler). Big hits, crazy shots (the ramp/reverse sweep), searing yorkers, booming bouncers and bamboozling leg spinners. These are the moments that stick in the mind, turn up on highlight reels around the world and are what people remember.

Think about the moments in a game of Australian Rules that really stick in the mind - it's the pack mark or the speccy, the big run down the wing, the miracle goal from the pocket, a player like a Martin or Dangerfield bursting forth from a pack and kicking a long range goal. Because of the nature of the way AFL X is set up, you really can't have those moments like you do in a proper game of Australian Rules. It takes away a lot of what makes Australian Rules great and you're left with a hollow shell. One of the games I watched had three 10 pointers kicked in a minute, going back and forth like a tennis ball over the net. If you'd seen three 6s in a row in a game of cricket, you'd be going nuts. Here, it felt like nothing, because the skill level required in this game in order to be able to do that seemed trivial in comparison - this is the pinnacle of the skill within the game and it felt so hollow.

That said, it does look like it'd be a fun game to play. Ironically, a lower skill level may have provided a better spectacle, but AFL players are too good with their skills for the most part that they made a mockery of the dimensions of the ground.

Good post

 

[Unknown Identity]

Could say the same about AFLW

I think that's a little off the mark.

AFLW is exactly the same format as AFL, providing equal oppportunity for women to become professional footballers.

As the money from sponsors comes in and popularity increases, More and More players will be paid a full time wage allowing them to train just as much as the Men do, which will contribute to higher quality games.

The exposure is also getting more young girls interested in playing football, the bigger the pool of women to choose from, the better the standard becomes.

There is a future for AFLW, it's probably 10 years away from being the spectacle that consistently puts bums in seats comparable to AFL, but AFLX is just a shit format that doesn't translate well on TV.. No big marks, no big hits, no big tackles and looks like circle work on the training track.

 

[mcgarnacle]

only remembered to tune in for the Final......saw the first 5 kicks result in 3 scores. one kick from the middle basically reaches the goals. thought of it as rubbish and turned back to the Olympics.

 

[Cripps 'n' Blue Bloods]

I get that people don't like change, especially when it's to do with a 100+ year old game, but this isn't replacing AFL. It's a bit of fun. It's different. It's fast paced.
I didn't mind it. Give me the season proper any day, but I have a feeling that most people that didn't like it had their minds made up before even seeing it and just refuse to give any ground.

 

[HawkMongrel]

I loved afl x. I only watched wce but really showed our kids well.

If it was nab cup it would have been one sided low scoring.

Showed our fwds quite well.

Good joob AFL.

The astroturfing is real with this one.

 

[PowerForGood]

I think the school version of Aussie Rules is better.
- played in a 70 mtr arc from one set of goals
- two teams - 10-30 players each, evenly split with one half of each team in the goalsquare and the other outside 50
- 4-6 footballs in play.
- Players in the goalsquare spend the game either taking hangers over the less athletic full back at the front of the pack (6 points) or roving the packs for the 98% of the time the ball spills to the ground (2 points). Whoever gets the ball gets to kick torps out from full back (3 points +1 if outside 50) or try to spot up their teammates on a lead (6 points). They then have to go out into the field of play.
- Players out in the field of play spend their time trying to win contested footy (2 points) or beg someone to give them a go as they haven't had a kick all game (-5 points). They then get to kick for goal (6 points for a normal goal, 1 point for a behind, +1 for every opposition player on the mark, +3 from outside 50, + 1 from the boundary line, +5 for a checkside/banana **).
- Yellow cards (5 mins off *) for anyone who pushes someone in the back into the pack when going for a mark, runs up behind someone who is running in for a kick for goal and trips them, or tries to do one of those dinky bounce-86-times dribble kicks.
- All kicks after the siren count.


Now Gil, THAT is AFL-X with all the best bits of footy kept in the game.

* unless they brought one of the footballs.
** on the outside of the foot, not a Stevie J hook-kick.

 

[PoopingHindi]

T20 takes all the good stuff about cricket and jams it into a smaller package.

AFL X takes all the good things about Aussie Rules and throws them away.

 

[PowerForGood]

I get that people don't like change, especially when it's to do with a 100+ year old game, but this isn't replacing AFL. It's a bit of fun. It's different. It's fast paced.
I didn't mind it. Give me the season proper any day, but I have a feeling that most people that didn't like it had their minds made up before even seeing it and just refuse to give any ground.

Not me. Watched the two games with Port and thought "circle work at training between possibles and probables". To the uninitiated i can see it could be ok but we are Aussie Rules fans.

 

[Unknown Identity]

I get that people don't like change, especially when it's to do with a 100+ year old game, but this isn't replacing AFL. It's a bit of fun. It's different. It's fast paced.
I didn't mind it. Give me the season proper any day, but I have a feeling that most people that didn't like it had their minds made up before even seeing it and just refuse to give any ground.

I was just happy to have footy back, and i was extremely keen to see the format.

More footy is never a bad thing!

But in this case it was, clubs didn't take it seriously.. Unless there is a real reason for clubs to want to play it, (maybe winning an end of 1st round draft selection)

Did you hear them ask Hamish Hartlett about training for this, "oh we did a couple of sessions but not really".. or words to that effect.

The fact that AFL clubs didn't buy into it is enough to say this has no future.
Add in the fact that it visually wasn't a spectacle, i'm not sure it will last much longer than a 2nd year.

 

[mr bagcroft]

I loved afl x. I only watched wce but really showed our kids well.

If it was nab cup it would have been one sided low scoring.

Showed our fwds quite well.

Good joob AFL.

HI Gil!
Now, **** off.

 

[mr bagcroft]

It might be better if we get contestants from Australian Idol and MKR to play it. The following year we can add teams from MAFS and the biggest loser. Ridiculous concept deserves it.

 

[Furn2]

i think it could be alright if it was a genuine competition

 

[kaiserchief13]

Is too uncontested for me. Simply a novelty that begins pre season a week early

 

[Furn2]

I actually had one after the telecast ended.

I wanted to go buy some but you have to wait a day or so for them to freeze so I didn't.

 

[SunshineBoy]

I actually had one after the telecast ended.

Subliminal messages

 

[Iva Bigun]

The AFL are on fire

AFLW.....ZZZZZZ

And now

AFLX.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

One question to Gil and the AFL...Y

 

[Goldhawk]

Looking forward to v's tonight

 

[Tasmaniac]

Turned off after 10 minutes, glorified training drill. I'll watch the hawks tonight to see our young players but that's it.

Would much rather watch AFLW, so well done AFL, I guess.....

 

[tigerz18]

The moment they introduced a 10 point goal and had it sponsored by Zooper Doopers and called it a Zooper goal, was the moment i feared for the games future.
Shameless branding has no place in our game.

 

[bungwahl]

T20 takes all the good stuff about cricket and jams it into a smaller package.

AFL X takes all the good things about Aussie Rules and throws them away.

I think this is an interesting point. As a big fan of both cricket and Aussie rules, I think T20 and AFLX are quite similar in the way that they devalue the most exciting elements of the sport. It used to be exciting to see a batsman hit a 6 but now it's just expected. Key elements of the longer game are pushed out of the short formats, such as spinners flighting the ball up or fast bowlers actually bowling fast (rather than bowling 3 slower balls an over). In the beginning it's a novelty and fans love seeing the big hitting batting, but once the novelty wears off it's just the same repetitious formula of off-pace bowling and wide yorkers.

The difference is that cricket had an issue for the casual fan; the games were too long and slow. T20 solved that issue by compressing everything in to a couple of hours - the same length as a game of footy - and that's why the Big Bash is a successful competition. To the fan of the longer game, T20 is a lesser format, but it's watchable. AFLX doesn't solve any issues for Aussie Rules and it looks like a glorified training drill. It creates a novelty format that could be played in rectangular stadiums on carnival days. The AFL is keen to find a way in to overseas markets, as Gil mentioned about 35 times last night. Hopefully that's not at the expense of the traditional game.