AFL Autopsy AFLX 2019: Bolts v Rampage v Flyers v Deadly, Marvel Stadium, Friday 22nd February, 7pm AEST

[Whispering_Jack]

Wait I thought this was instead of JLT..

No. And it wasn't last year either.

 

[Andronicus]

Did I read correctly that Betts had exclusive rights to choose indigenous players?

 

[Runk]

Cue club statement advising all 4 players are unavailable due to polio outbreak. Club in lockdown.

 

[Milanista28]

Players would run more kilometres if they were at training - It hardly helps with their preparation.

On the flip side it won't hurt them either, 1 week out of their routine isn't gonna cause any dramas.

 

[Its Manbearpig]

Did I read correctly that Betts had exclusive rights to choose indigenous players?

Correct, his entire team is.

 

[Its Manbearpig]

Did I read correctly that Betts had exclusive rights to choose indigenous players?

Not to imply any undertones here, but how do you or we as big footy community feel about that?

 

[Andronicus]

Not to imply any undertones here, but how do you or we as big footy community feel about that?

I think it's a bizarre step backwards.

 

[JuniorWatch]

I think it's a bizarre step backwards.

Please elaborate.
(no confrontation implied), just curious.

 

[Andronicus]

Please elaborate.
(no confrontation implied), just curious.

Trying to pretend they have an equal draft, and then saying one team has sole access to indigenous players is strange. Why include them in the draft at all? Why didnt Betts just name his team before the day? What if other teams wanted an indigenous player?

Its bizarre.

 

[Old Campaigner]

I’m wondering what they’ll do to jazz this shit up and make it more “exciting” next year when it ends up being a ratings flop in a few weeks?

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Absolutely rolling on the floor with laughter at the hysteria in here.

Players would be more at risk, and would go in way harder, for the mouth guard training sessions.

And fancy having an issue with then putting up an indigenous team. You'd think some people have never heard of the term marketing.

I couldn't be less interested but I am not the intended market. Neither are any of you.

Is it just me or has this board been ludicrously more hysteric than usual this preseason?

 

[Andronicus]

Absolutely rolling on the floor with laughter at the hysteria in here.

Players would be more at risk, and would go in way harder, for the mouth guard training sessions.

And fancy having an issue with then putting up an indigenous team. You'd think some people have never heard of the term marketing.

I couldn't be less interested but I am not the intended market. Neither are any of you.

Is it just me or has this board been ludicrously more hysteric than usual this preseason?

That's a fairly emotive response to opinions you disagree with.

Some might describe it as hysterical.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Players would be more at risk, and would go in way harder, for the mouth guard training sessions.

My issue with it is that training is a necessary part of preparing for the season ahead so while injuries are more likely I can accept that as part of footy.

AFLX is pointless gimmicky shit, the answer to a question nobody asked. As far as I can tell it does not benefit the club, players or fans in any way nor does it leave anyone in better condition for the coming season. In that context an injury (as unlikely as it is) to a player is nothing but a waste and should be viewed in the same light as injuries incurred during other extra curricular activities (e.g. waterskiing).

 

[Lance Uppercut]

That's a fairly emotive response to opinions you disagree with.

Some might describe it as hysterical.

describe it however you want

 

[Lance Uppercut]

My issue with it is that training is a necessary part of preparing for the season ahead so while injuries are more likely I can accept that as part of footy.

AFLX is pointless gimmicky shit, the answer to a question nobody asked. As far as I can tell it does not benefit the club, players or fans in any way nor does it leave anyone in better condition for the coming season. In that context an injury (as unlikely as it is) to a player is nothing but a waste and should be viewed in the same light as injuries incurred during other extra curricular activities (e.g. waterskiing).

oh well, what you gonna do?

The AFL, bless them, obviously think there's a point to expanding their market. The players have consented. The club has consented. The players probably prefer doing this slightly competitive exercise to the training session their team mates will be doing instead.

 

[Andronicus]

describe it however you want

Like someone driving in peak hour complaining about traffic.

 

[Old Campaigner]

oh well, what you gonna do?

The AFL, bless them, obviously think there's a point to expanding their market. The players have consented. The club has consented. The players probably prefer doing this slightly competitive exercise to the training session their team mates will be doing instead.

Did the club actually consent? Or was it a case of the AFL threatening a shit fixture or some such if clubs didn’t make their stars available?

 

[Beerfish]

Is it just me or has this board been ludicrously more hysteric than usual this preseason?

If so it's probably just a function of having been shit for so long now. Every little thing is blown up because it feels like we have to have almost everything go right if we're going to be any chance at all.

Having said that I'm not sure this preseason has been noticeably worse personally.

 

[JayJ20]

I prefer Essendon players not playing, but it is what it is.

Would have liked a 3rd preseason game instead of AFLX. If you're going to have a showcase game in this fashion, make it a normal game (like an All-stars game). I'd be interested in that.

I'll give this a miss.

 

[Lore]

Did the club actually consent? Or was it a case of the AFL threatening a shit fixture or some such if clubs didn’t make their stars available?

I doubt it was anything as uncivilised as that, and if it did get to that point it would probably be fines rather than unfavourable fixtures.

I’m pretty sure it’s all in the contracts (as in the CBA), probably some vague clause about participation in league marketing or something, I haven’t read through it for a while but I know there was a lot of stuff like that that was included (though “AFLX” as a concept isn’t specifically mentioned).

The AFL and the club are joint employers of the players so I doubt the club can really go around the league on that. They’re compensated accordingly, and the players themselves are all volunteers. I’m not sure what would happen if every player in the league refused to participate, though if it came to that you’d think there’d be good reason and the AFL would try something else.

The maximum damage a club can take from this is up to 4 injured players, so all clubs have the same level of risk to start with. Those with more talent are more likely to have more players drafted and on the field for more minutes, so I guess in that sense the better teams have slightly greater risks than crappy teams. But I guess that feeds into the mantra about equalisation? Having more players on the field also means more air time for your brand though so I guess it’s swings and roundabouts.

If the club is really worried about a player getting injured they’ll just do the old “he is sidelined with a tingly thigh/partially disrupted bicep/windy hill flu”. Everyone has options really, but it seems the reward outweighs the risks from their perspectives.

 

[Old Campaigner]

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/x-fails-to-mark-the-spot-20190220-p50z4b.html

Marvel Stadium is Australia’s version of the magic lands at the top of Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree. Last week’s cricket BBL fantasy land has moved on, to be replaced by an enchanted realm called AFLX. I do so hope that Joe, Beth and Fanny made it down in time for tea.

X sounds like a truly marvellous place, “with an action packed line-up of activities including rock climbing walls, face painting, balloon artists, roving entertainment, giveaways plus much more”. That is not Blyton, but the AFL website.

It may or may not also feature football; at the time of writing, that was like the Faraway Tree, a bit up in the cloudy air.

But enough of the facts. The question now about X is the one mathematicians ask: what is it?

Is it for players? No, they’re racing for the exits in their droves, giving rise to fears about a quorum. Star turn of the roving entertainment: the astonishing disappearing footballer. For every giveaway, a getaway, up over the climbing wall. A batch from Hawthorn appear to have developed “general soreness” in advance. Port Adelaide’s Robbie Gray felt a hamstring coming on weeks ago.

Is it for fans? If so, they’re scarcely racing for the entrances in droves. Ticket prices have been reduced, and AFL members can get in for free. So can kids. It’s the modern sports administrator’s infallible, all-purpose, go-everywhere, no-questions-asked alibi: it’s all for the kiddies.

But poor darlings: they’ve barely let the air out of their thundersticks and now they’re going to have to paint their faces all over again.

Is it for women? Can’t be, or else the AFL wouldn’t stage it at the same time as its still emerging women’s competition, surely? Surely?

Is it for TV? Well, der. But only a bit. The AFLX draft was pre-recorded and put to air 24 hours later, and no-one tumbled to it. You’d think that someone would have cared enough to leak it ...

Is it to promote the game in the non-AFL states? That is, can they be lured away from their long-established, culturally-embedded contact football codes by AFL lite, sans the game’s two most distinct and saleable elements, 360-degree contact and high marking, in other words a shadow version of a code they don’t understand and don’t much care for anyway?

Is X for the international market, as we’re told, because it fits on a soccer pitch? But it occurs to us that there already is a code that is played on a soccer pitch, and it has built up quite a following of its own around the world, and if you give it a bit of time will probably do very well. It’s called soccer.

Is it specifically to expose the game in China? Um, do you think there’s much about the AFL that China doesn’t already know? Chances are there is a hacker or two in China who by now knows more about AFL than Leigh Matthews.

Is X for the AFL itself? Emphatically, yes. We think. Maybe. Perhaps. They’ll get back to us. Last year, the X series was between all 18 real teams across three nights, in three cities. This year, it’s four scratch teams, one city and one night, or as the AFL puts it, trying to make it sound preciously scarce, “one night only”.

That looks and sounds very much like what economists would call “negative growth”. That looks and sounds very much like the AFL saying what it has never said before: we were, um, you know, wro… wron …

Right, as we always are, except for the number of teams, the venues, the format and the rules.

This year, AFLX is all new, as distinct from last year, when it was all new. The teams will have funky names and guernseys. The stars are going to dress up as superheroes, or in Patrick Dangerfield’s case, dress down as a superhero. There’s going to be on each team a nominated game-changer, whose scores will count for double in the last five minutes, and no Carlton, you can’t have one.

There’s going to be … oh, honestly, who cares? With the big dance just around the corner, who among clubs, players and fans really gives a stuff about a pajama party? Why have we been tricked into allowing it to take up even this many column centimetres? It must be the kids.

The AFL can hype and pipe all it wants, but the true unknown about X is why?

 

[eth-dog]

Apparently rock paper scizzors will replace the toss. Rate it.

 

[eDPS]

Apparently rock paper scizzors will replace the toss. Rate it.

 

[eth-dog]

View attachment 622723

HOW DOES PAPER BEAT ROCK THOUGH?

 

[Andronicus]

Were the Hawthorne boys ever going to play?

This is going to be a 2 on 2 comp at this rate.