Spoke to my girlfriend's mate who works at AFL and she said it's not even close to being finalised and everyone in the office is expecting it to be a massive flop.

That's from someone who is pretty one eyed AFL too.

No.

This is not the same.

The yanks prioritised owner occupied boutique stadiums for its national league.

We prioritiesed calling soccer football.




Where the fuck are we compared to the yanks right now.

In a world cup

I am interested to see how the concept transfers to tv. Imo they should be looking at spider cam



because there may be a lot of kicks at goal. 

Also it may be a tight camera angle down on the close sideline at Hindmarsh. Perhaps they will have cameramen on each side of the field at half way that go onto the pitch. 

I think they have been smart in the way they have packaged it, the 3 nights only. But made a big mistake not using Aami and choosing Sydney over Nib in Perth. Etihad will jjust remind people of full size AFL too much, and MV games dont look that great already. Sydney may not be full. Perth would have been with WCE and FD playing. This is turn would look better on tv but it may have come down to cost. They could have waited the extra year for Sydney so the fans there would look forward to having it in 2019 after seeing how good it looked on tv. 

post wc they have 23 div 1 teams and 39 div 2 teams. 

Watching the Australian Open. Australian (Russian immigrant) Daria Gavrilova wins her game and in the post match all the Channel 7 commentator wants to ask about is some relo that plays in the AFLW. It's a fucking cult

did she scratch her head and ask huh?

And he followed it up with a question about the Russian born Sydney team on my kitchen rules.

Fucking Melbourne can’t help themselves.

got to love those footy states .... somehow need to make AFL relevant....

Channel 7 Melbourne just promoting MKR and AFL cos they are based in Melbourne. Pathetic.

Why would anyone watch the Aussie open? Can only imagine the cringe worthy commentary coming out of channel 7. Pity fox can’t show it. Are we the only country with fkn anti-siphoning laws??

No

I would imagine they were cross promoting it more because both are on their channel, rather than anything to do with the city of Melbourne.

Their pathological obsesssion with foreign acknowledgment and recognistion of the game is bizarre. So much to the point they are now attempting to butcher their game so ultimately someone overseas will eventually go - 'wow, this is the greatest game in the world, it's so tough and skillful, do they have another version that goes for 4 quarters takes almost a day and involves 36 players in a roaming pack scrabbling for the ball before being rewarded for missing?'

Melbourne reminds a lot of Sydney 30 years ago.

Oh, that makes sense, now that I've calmed down...

I was about to go on a crazed rant about their bizarre pathological obsession with foreign acknowledgement and recognition....glad I didn't...that would have come across a bit unhinged

I actually agree with the point Bohemia was making - but that response was too good not to acknowledge. 

In terms of house prices, perhaps.

I left Melbourne once

I honestly would have been shocked if it came to fruition. It made zero sense, would be a logistical nightmare all to show another bastardised version of their bastard game. 

After they were so adamant that it would be happening this year it looks to be another failed attempt of relevance. 

8 retweets and counting.....

https://twitter.com/AFL/status/953040258609762305

judging by the comments AFL fans are not sold to say the least

Yeah but what the AFL do is copy the cricket big bash model. Basically it wont be sold as a sport but as an entertainment bonanza. They will pump money targeting kids and in and make tickets super cheap for the kids. This will fill the stadiums and then their media will go in overdrive to hype how good the crowds are which then gives off the perception that it's a good product. This will then get all the one's sitting on the fence to attend and bam it will become like big bash 2.0. 

I've seen all of this in the Big Bash and all the naysayers early on, but now look at it. Should the Big Bash be considered a real sport, not really, it's clear by all accounts that the game is created purely with the entertainment dollar in mind rather than actual sporting merit. If it gets more kids to a game they will do anything to attract them through the gates. This AFLX will be the same. The code will have achieved it's goal if they are able to dislodge the a-league teams during their season. Simple as that. 

While I agree with this, I think their bigger goal is to try and get ppl interested in AFL that currently don't know or care about it.

Could also be a way to push MV out of Etihad on weekends.

Play AFLX Friday and Sunday and AFLW Saturdays or any combo

We got Ewoks, they can't take that away from us.

but that might actually create momentum to build more and better rectangular stadiums, especially in Perth and Adelaide

I saw a Rebel Sports Ad a while back and various sports stars came into the store and surprised young kids who were buying gear. A cricket fan met Mitch Johnson, a AFL fan met an AFL player, a netball fan met a netball player, and so on and so forth, it was a nice Ad but what struck me was that all the kids were a little surprised, understandably happy but the young football fan burst into tears when Sam Kerr came into the store.....that is the difference with football, it is everything, not just a TV show.

Fair enough.

But the yanks are at least building something. We get a 1 month sugar hit from being in the cup. They have what they have built for life.

Greater Western Sydney will be part of the showcase when they take on Sydney, Gold Coast, the Brisbane Lions, plus the League's past two premiers in Richmond and the Western Bulldogs.

The matches will be played on the specially designed rectangular field at Allianz Stadium in Sydney on Saturday February 17.

GWS coach Leon Cameron told AFL.com.au that AFLX is a unique way to officially start season 2018.

"We're looking forward to it because we get to play five other teams, and it is an exciting opportunity because it is new," he said.

"I think there's a real sense of the unknown when you start to compete against another side.

'X' still a mystery for coaches and players - AFL.com.au

So they play every team. Thats 15 matches x 20 mins plus ca 5 minutes. Thats almost 6 1/2 hours. 

That cant be right.