| Highestgoverning body | AFL Commission |
|---|---|
| First played | March, 2017;Lakeside Stadium,Melbourne, Victoria |
| Characteristics | |
| Team members | originally 7 per side + 5 interchange (differs to men's 18 per side + 4 interchange) |
| Type | |
| Venue | Football pitch (soccer field) |
AFLX is avariation ofAustralian rules football designed in 2017 to be played on asoccer field (significantly smaller than theAustralian rules oval). Unlike the full 18-a-side game (or the already established variant for rectangular fields,nine-a-side footy, including the AFL's own variantAFL 9s), AFLX required fewer players (initially 7, but increased to 8) with some modified rules aimed at generating higher scores, including increased scoring points. It was founded in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience outside of its origin country ofAustralia.[1] The AFL billed AFLX as its answer toTwenty20 orrugby sevens.[2]
The AFL held two officialAustralian Football League (AFL) pre-season AFLX competitions featuring senior AFL clubs and players, in2018 and2019, but these were unpopular with spectators and did not return in 2020.[3]
The variation continues to be promoted by theAFL Commission as a participation sport in development regions and areas, and particularly where full-sized cricket grounds are not available. Since theCOVID-19 pandemic, AFLX has been merged with AFL 9s and retained only the X brand, co-branding AFL 9s as Junior X, Youth X and Senior X and aligning it with the more widely established 9-a-side format.
The rules of the game differed from standard Australian rules football in some significant ways. The game was played on a rectangularsoccer-sized pitch, allowing matches to be hosted by stadiums that usually lacked the suitable field dimensions for Australian rules football. The format was modified in the second year, with AFLX 2019 seeing slightly changed rules:[4][5]
AFLX was first trialled atArden Street Oval in January 2017.[7] Two months later, it was trialed at was first trialled on a soccer pitch atLakeside Stadium in a match between thePort Melbourne Football Club andCoburg Football Club.[7] It was launched by AFL manager of football operationsSimon Lethlean that July and later hailed by the AFL as key means of kickstartingAustralian rules football in China as part of the AFL and Port Adelaide's push in to the country which was acknowledged to lacked the infrastructure to support the growth of the full 18-player game.[8]
AFLX pre-season competition was launched by AFLchief executive officerGillon McLachlan atDocklands Stadium on 6 February 2018. McLachlan said that AFLX would help promote football internationally.[9]
The2018 competition attracted more than 40,000 fans to tournaments inAdelaide,Melbourne andSydney. In Melbourne, TV ratings were reported as "modest" by AFL standards, with the three events drawing an average five-city metro audience of over 120,000 onChannel Seven's secondary channels.[10]
The AFL made several rule tweaks midway through the second season in attempt to make it higher scoring by inflating the scoring points for behinds from 1 to 2, goals from 6 to 12 and Super Goals from 10 to 20.[11]
The 2019E. J. Whitten Legends Game was also played under "EJX" (modified version of AFLX named afterE J Whitten) atAAMI Park in Melbourne.[12] It attracted just 6,000 spectators, the lowest in the series history.
AFLX did not return as a senior AFL competition in 2020, as AFL had a greater focus onAFLW.[3]
Post theCOVID-19 pandemic, the AFL increased the number of players to 9, effectively merging AFLX with AFL 9s and aligning with the widely established 9-a-side format.[13]
The reception to the two AFL pre-season competitions among fans and the media was mostly poor,[14][15] withABC Radio Grandstand journalist Richard Hinds being particularly savage in labelling it a "hollow, unappealing, pressure-free, atmosphere-deficient, oval-in-a-rectangle hole yawn-fest".[16]
Con Stavros ofRMIT's school of Economics, Finance and Marketing, expressed doubts about the potential of AFLX to export Australian rules football but acknowledged that using rectangular playing fields instead of the standard cricket ones would make such expansion easier.[17]
| Season | Winner(s) |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Group A:Adelaide Crows Group B:Melbourne Demons Group C:Brisbane Lions |
| 2019 | Rampage |