Also having played a AFL 9's tournament in Brisbane last year, I can say pretty confidently that AFL just can't have it's Futsal or Sevens equivalent that it's desperate for. The ball goes way to quickly and easily from one end to the other because it's a viable tactic to just hoof it forward. The ball bypasses the midfield every time and everyone else is just chasing scraps. Imagine a Futsal game where both goalkeepers just throws the ball over everyone to a Target Man lurking around goal, it's hardly enjoyable for anyone else.


If you reduce the numbers to 7, it doesn't make things any better or more enjoyable. People can still kick a footy most of the way up a soccer pitch, it's just you have to be fitter to get to the loose ball first which imo hardly makes it better.

Their attempts at trying to get people overseas into the game are embarrasing. It's almost at a pathological state, where you have to start thinking, they've done the sums and they cannot long term keep going the way they have.

Even with a couple of billion TV deal, ten teams this year may lose money - this is even with pokies revenue coming in at around 100 million 
Add in things like 250 million spent on just two teams (gws & suns) already. Maybe it's a case of expand overseas or their game contracts. 

Most park pitches in Sydney either get used all year round for football/rugby/rugby league/touch, or in summer they get turned into AstroTurf cricket fields.

The AFL struggle to find fields for the full team game in winter as it is. Good luck finding an empty field in summer.

So the form a new game so to play on soccer pitches oversea and introduce the game?

Well there's plenty of ovals to play their full AFL game, places like NZ, India, South Africa, England etc. So their statement is utter bullshit.

They know the sport won't get international attention as they've and failed already. Theyre doing it take attention away from sockah's and stifle its continuing growth.

Smell the fear.

Good luck with that international expansion

Lol what the fuck.

Good for them. Their normal game is sh*t so it needed changing up lol

Our pitches are over used to the point where clubs and councils have to decide whether to turn away kids or let them turn into dustbowls.

Good luck to the AFL if they think they can get a booking in.

Not insecure at all 

I guess this is their 'stop the sokkah monster' tactic. They truly are infactuated with trying to attack other codes, almost as changing their own rules.

AFL secretly trials new version of football
Larissa Nicholson

The AFL has been quietly developing a modified form of Australian Rules that is played on a soccer field, which it trialled in a secret match between two VFL teams last weekend.

With the working name AFL X, the new version of the game allows just seven players from each team on the ground, far fewer than the usual 18-a-side, and is as part of a broader plan to become a year-round sport

AFL boss Gillon McLachlan, speaking after the Hawks Young Executive Wing grand final breakfast, said the concept had come from a brainstorming session with his staff.

He said the idea behind AFL X had been to attract non-football fans to the game and enable it to be taken to venues where football could not normally be played because they did not have an oval.

"It was an idea that came up, to develop a new product, that was able to work in different venues and look different, in a shorter and different format" he told Fairfax Media.

McLachlan said the trial match on the weekend had been a success, but plans to launch an AFL X competition are still a long way off.

The AFL's general manager of game and market development Simon Lethlean stressed that AFL X was still very much in its infancy.

He described it as an "internal think-tank" project, but said it had the potential fill a gap between a full-scale AFL games and the recreational AFL-9s format.

AFL-9s does not allow tackles or bumping, whereas AFL X does.

Lethlean said the weekend's AFL X match, run in four 10-minute quarters, had been a fast, high-intensity encounter which had left the VFL players involved exhausted.

By fielding smaller teams and playing on a soccer pitch, he said it was easier than full-scale football to take overseas and may one day form a part of the AFL's international expansion plans.

Lethlean also mentioned using the game in an off-season competition involving well-known, recently retired players.

Every sporting body wanted to expand its reach, he said.

"It's part of everyone's plan to be a 12-month a year sport," said Lethlean.

The innovation comes as sports compete for the best athletes and bigger audiences. Cricket is an example of a sport that has launched a shorter format with spectacular success, Twenty20 becoming a massive money spinner and compelling TV product.

The AFL's inaugural women's competition kicks off in February, an early start that would allow the players to remain involved in their local competitions and ensure they were not pitted against the men's season.

Asked whether a future AFL X series would compete for public attention with the women's game, Lethlean said it was too early to give that any consideration.

AFL staff will now review footage of the AFL X game between VFL players from the weekend and review statistics from the match.

"I hope it leads to more people playing our game," Lethlean said.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-secretly-trials-new-version-of-football-20160907-gral7s.html