Drug use? In Australia? Among those with money? Get outta here. 

.... and now it's gone.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-08-06/x-off-the-map-afl-to-remove-aflx-from-preseason-fixture

Could you imagine if pogba said he needs a few weeks off to go on mental health leave? Everyone would laugh at him 

Ive had a few friends and friends family members that have made afl lists and this seems to be trend. On the other hand i don't know any professional football players, but surely it would be similar,  just doesn't make any sense not to. Though most don't get anywhere near the amount of cash.

Take this with a grain of salt, but I know a reasonably high profile AFL player through friends, and he has confided in me that the level of recreational drug abuse within AFL circles is rampant. These 'mental health' breaks, whilst some may be genuine, are usually an elaborate cover for drug rehab. It's what happens when young bogans are given lots of cash with lots of free time - they tend to make poor decisions. It's no different to the NRL, except that the AFL PR machine seems much more efficient at covering up the scandals than the NRL.

Later is probably more likely.

So many afl players have mental health issues and go on leave so it’s not something I want to make fun of. Either the afl is ahead of all other sport organisations at addressing mental health or the players really are taking the piss a bit 

More like junkets to LA and London - the Player's Union isn't stupid, if they can milk a $50k bonus and an all expenses paid trip overseas for their members for 2 days of kick and giggle, they'll do it.

“According to the Herald Sun's Jon Ralph, clubs would prefer to see AFLX in a post-season format that would see teams play overseas.”
https://www.sportingnews.com/au/afl/news/aflx-afl-aflw-scrapped-2020-preseason/qd5cgh456avk1411xi3ip7i8e

This has Bali written all over it 

It's pretty funny watching the AFL administration try and take over the world and fight a one sided war against the evil sokkah wog poofters. The more energy they give it, the more they neglect their main product and are turning people off it hahaha

Did Goodes really retire because of the "racism"? He was heading into his late 30's anyway, and most AFL players are gone by then.

At last! The AFL  has finally conquered the world...as racists

Goodes story to go global as NBA star Ben Simmons jumps on board

Vince RugariJuly 25, 2019 — 11.59pm

Australian NBA superstar Ben Simmons has jumped on board with a new documentary about Adam Goodes to ensure the story of the AFL great's battle with racism will be spread around the world.Simmons has become an executive producer of The Australian Dream, which will premiere next week at the Melbourne International Film Festival and includes fresh interviews with Goodes about the sad end to his career with the Sydney Swans.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/afl/goodes-story-to-go-global-as-nba-star-ben-simmons-jumps-on-board-20190725-p52auq.html

They are desperate to get it going to help wage their war against football/league so they will try at nothing to establish a foothold. 

Problem is most AFL fans and the club's don't care about performing a hostile takeover of western Sydney. If anything they seem to view it as neglecting the games true heartlands.

Thanks for the article melbcityguy but can you please get into the habit of posting the link to it as well?

They are still pushing it and they've also revealed the annual E.J Whitten Legends Match will be changed to sn AFLX format this year. 

SEN Breakfast co-host Tim Watson believes we’ve seen the last of the AFL’s controversial brainchild AFLX.

Watson revealed the coaches strongly disliked the concept and have seemingly gotten their way.

“I’ve got an acronym for you. I’m hearing this, but you’ve got to put the pieces together: AFLX RIP,” Watson told SEN Breakfast.

“What do you think that means?

“I’m hearing there was a lot of opposition to it from AFL clubs.

“There’ll be no more AFLX, that’s what I’m hearing.”

The spinoff competition has existed for the last two seasons and has featured current AFL players on a rectangular field playing with eight per side.

AFLX was revamped in 2019 with players paid significant amounts of money to take part in the one-night tournament.

dude i played touch footy it was terrible it doesn't work because you can kick the ball to far 

This exactly. Thankfully so far it has been a monumental flop as the average aussie rules fan doesn't care about destroying other football codes as much as the AFL heads do.

i hope the RBB go 

Why don't they spend those billions on building their own stadiums instead of sponging off the tax payer

Why should they quit? They're in desperate need to expand their operations given their corporate situation and have guaranteed billions of dollars to burn. With areas to expand into seriously limited, they can afford to flog this until it gets up and gallops, even if it takes decades. 

Fish where the fish are, as they say. Sydney and China have the kinds and numbers of fish they want and they won't care how silly their bait looks.

Because afl hq are so far up their own areas that they don't hear the criticisms.  

Why dont they just admit AFLX is a disaster and concentrate on destroying the knee ligaments of Australia's female athletes.

International Footy!!

The people on that bigfooty forum are seriously crazy. And they love quoting meaningless figures and stats- just like Mr Football used to on here.

NEWS: Bankwest Stadium (Parramatta) could host next AFLX pre-season showpiece

–

“The AFL is looking at bringing their new pre-season extravaganza to the heartland of rugby league and soccer in Sydney by staging next year’s AFLX tournament at Bankwest Stadium.

“AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has confirmed the league is considering moving the event to a non-traditional market, where the 10-a-side format of the game has a much larger role to play at a grassroots level.”

–

“McLachlan told the Herald he believed there was merit in bringing the event to Sydney or Brisbane, given the shortage of suitable oval grounds in those cities was one of the reasons the condensed format of the game was created specifically to be played on rectangular fields.

“It’s certainly an option to bring AFLX to Sydney or Brisbane but we haven’t finalised our plans for next year,” McLachlan said.”

They should put a team of 18 blokes together and challenge Austeralia's best.

The funny thing about the afl going international was even if it did I can’t imagine countries like Germany or France missing some of those set shots from 20 metres out those countries will work harder then the players in Australia do

If you want a good laugh, head over here and go thru a few of the threads (although traffic has dropped off dramatically in the last few years): https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/forums/international-footy.12/

IMO, if the AFL seriously wanted an international competition, they support a WA and/or SA secessionist movement, which would instantly turn the AFL into an international tournament. More chance of WA and/or SA becoming independent than anywhere else seriously taking up AFL.

They state that in the article in the first post.

laugh all you want there are people on the afl's facebook page who believe it will takeover overseas because there are a few amtuear clubs with expats set up