Expansion possibilities ‘endless’ for high-scoring AFLX format

THE AFL will monitor the experimental rules of AFLX with a view to the future of footy and international expansion as the league predicts rampant scoring up to 140 points a game.

THE AFL will monitor the experimental rules of AFLX with a view to the future of footy as the league predicts rampant scoring up to 140 points a game.

The 40-minute game blasts onto the AFL landscape on Thursday, February 15 with AFL executives saying the possibilities for international expansion are “endless”.

That seems optimistic but the high-scoring, free-flowing game could prove a clear comparison with the current stoppage-based, low-scoring AFL game.

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A number of clubs, including Essendon, have been training for AFLX. Picture: Jay Town

AFLX project manager David Stevenson said the league will be watching game style with interest.

The league believes teams will score up to 70 points per game — there are four quarters of 10 minutes on a rectangular field — with a last-touch out-of-bounds rule.

Just as Twenty20 cricket enhanced the scoring rates of Test cricket, there is a chance AFLX will help the AFL’s game style.

How's that Conor goose-step 👟 at 3:17?!

Check out the boys learning the rules as we countdown to our first ever #AFLX match. pic.twitter.com/TlT6Yemt2q

— Essendon FC (@EssendonFC) January 29, 2018

“The clubs have done different trials and some have been seven-on-seven and some nine-on-nine but they are pretty high numbers,” Stevenson told the Herald Sun yesterday.

“I think you will see 70-plus points per side for a full game.

“That’s how it was designed. How do you take the best parts of our game — the scoring and free-flowing footy and using the ball for all of the playing time and create it into a smaller version say for kids to get excited by?

“All the trials have been good. It encourages players to play through the corridor. They are cautious about going too close to the sidelines.

“I am sure (the AFL will be watching). We have seen (last kick or handball penalised) in the SANFL and the women are using it as well so it will be interesting how it’s received by the players and fans.”

The AFLW has adopted the last-disposal (kick or handball) out of bounds rule after it was deemed to have helped keep the ball in play more in the SANFL last year.

Scoring in the AFL proper is hovering at historical low levels, the 89.1 points per team last year only marginally up on 2015’s 86.4 points, the worst year since the 1960s.

Congestion is still terrible — 61.6 throw-ups and ball-ups a game — and players regularly abuse the deliberate out-of-bounds rule by fumbling the ball over the line.

Will Gary Ablett feature in AFLX? Picture: Alison Wynd

North Melbourne has been one of the strongest adopters of AFLX. Picture: Jay Town

Geelong and Port Adelaide will play the first AFLX game on February 15 as part of a six-team round robin format at Adelaide’s Hindmarsh Stadium.

Etihad Stadium will host six Victorian teams the following night, with Sydney’s Allianz Stadium holding the final six-team tournament.

Supporters will be separated into club-specific seating bays in a separate initiative but Stevenson said they had options to sit away from those bays.

“For the first time in recent memory we have six teams at the one venue,’’ he said.

“At the Melbourne tournament we have six Melbourne teams at Etihad and it will look great it they can sit in bays with their own fans.

“But it’s general admission so fans can sit where they want, no one will force them into any areas.”

Training steps up a notch with an #AFLX trial under the watchful eye of the coaches #ProudlySydney pic.twitter.com/jCwf8BDHFZ

— Sydney Swans (@sydneyswans) January 28, 2018