AFLX launch in AFLW season wrong call, says Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon

WESTERN Bulldogs president Peter Gordon has launched a scathing attack on the AFL over its decision to kick off AFLX in the middle of the second season of an under-promoted AFLW.

Gillon McLachlan launches AFLX.

WESTERN Bulldogs president Peter Gordon has launched a scathing attack on the AFL over its decision to kick off AFLX in the middle of the second season of an under-promoted AFLW competition.

The league will put its new AFLX concept on display for the first time next week with all 18 clubs involved over three nights of round-robin competition starting on Thursday.

The games coincide with Round 3 of the eight-team AFLW, which is still finding its feet after being established last year.

Gordon said he could not understand the decision to run the two competitions at the same time and would have liked more focus to be put on AFLW.

“For all of the other challenges that AFLW faces, it faces a competitive product launched not from soccer or cricket but from AFL House itself,” Gordon said on ABC Radio.

“We saw this launch of AFLX during the week in an empty Etihad Stadium with acrobats and parachuters trying to land in the middle of an empty AFL stadium. I’d prefer that money to go into the promotion of the women’s football. I understand that the budget for AFLW has been cut this year.”

Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon. Picture: Stuart McEvoy.

AFL boss Gillon McLachlan launches AFLX this week.

The AFL clarified “overall spend is the same” for the women’s competition as 2017 but admitted marketing money had been reduced.

“The money is being spent differently in the competition with a greater amount in payments to players and less in other areas relating to promotion, due to there now being greater awareness of the competition 12 months on,” a league spokesman told the Herald Sun.

Total player payments in AFLW rose $477,000 to $2,752,000 this year after a new deal was struck with the AFL Player’s Association last November.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said on Tuesday that he felt AFLW and AFLX could run alongside each other both this year and potentially into the future.

“People will have their views but given the AFLW had clean air to start and they’ve started really strongly and I think’s got its own momentum now and AFLX will have its own piece,” McLachlan said.

“It’s only those three days and then we’re into JLT and the countdown to the men’s. It feels like it can all coexist to me.”

The Western Bulldogs, along with Melbourne were pioneers of women’s football, having played the first AFL sanctioned women’s match at the MCG in 2013.