The AFLX Debuted Last Night And The Punters Agree: It Sucks Ass

Last night, the AFL unveiled its latest brain child, AFLX; a modified, streamlined, compacted version of Australian rules football designed to be faster, more engaging for fans, and more importantly played on rectangular fields, an aspect that – the AFL hopes – will allow the game to be more easily transplanted into non-traditional AFL markets.

And folks, the punters’ reaction was practically universal: It sucks tremendously.

The gameplay itself was a confusing mess more akin to a televised training drill. Gone is practically the entire midfield, the bulk of the contested possessions, the high marks, the tackles, and just about everything else that makes the AFL an enjoyable spectacle.

Instead, fans at Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide – the AFL claims attendance at the 16,000-seat capacity stadium was just over 10,000, but judging by multiple photos that’s about as bullshit as the silver ball they used – were confronted with a confusing, hard-to-follow mess that looked more like a highlights tape in fast forward.

The broadcast was even worse. Reuniting the hollering old boys club of James Brayshaw and Brian Taylor on commentary aside, the AFL shoved ad partnership after ad partnership down viewers throats, with almost every aspect of the new format sold off to within an inch of its life.

Baffling “Zooper goals” and thoroughly obnoxious LED-light goal posts quite blatantly displayed how desperate the AFL is to cash in on the runaway success of the Big Bash League.

As for the broader fan reaction on Twitter, it was ahhh… not kind. At all.

https://twitter.com/RLGriffinGWS/status/964044311422672896

https://twitter.com/JamColley/status/964043423559794688

https://twitter.com/rustyjacko/status/964068344813862912

It’s an absolute mess, basically. A really, really, really expensive mess.

The 2018 AFLX experiment has two more “tournaments” to go: one tonight in Melbourne, and on on Saturday night in Sydney.

If we all just hold hands or something, we can probably get through this together.

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