AFLX Draft - you won’t believe which four players are going to suffer Windy Hill Flu

Yeah, but…the game’s ■■■■■■■ boring.
The marks are boring, there’s no tackling, the goals are boring…

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and a one off, three hour,event is hardly going to live on in the kids’ minds.

Caroline Wilson writes a glowing article about it?

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I think these days it’s more of a case of Gerard Whateley breathlessly, orgasmically, erotically extolling its virtues, given he seems to be the AwFuL’s anointed reacharound guy now…

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There’s only one criteria: “did we come up with the idea?”

Much like how they never implemented Kim Crawford’s final 8 system.

They independently came up with the exact same system 5 years later, and hoped everyone forgot.

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sounds like it’s a winner

Looking forward to Friday night.

I am too… but not for AwFuLx reasons…

2019-02-20%2014_25_14

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This Muppet-bashing has got to stop.

Fark SEN.

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I know that I’m often to be found on here attributing machiavellian motivations to all sorts of dumb ■■■■ the AFL does, but when you’re on a good thing stick to it, so here I go again…

It’s been my impression for a long time that the AFL are trying to weaken the influence of the clubs over how the game is run. The motivation for this is fairly obvious - the clubs have (I believe) the on-paper power to roll the commission if they pass a vote with sufficient margin. Obviously some clubs are about as independent of the AFL as a sockpuppet is of a hand, but this may not always be the case (I believe the expansion clubs are eventually intended to become member-owned clubs like everyone else), and also, the AFL like to be on the safe side of these things.

What I reckon the AFL is trying to do with AFLX is to convince supporters to transition towards following players, rather than following clubs - bit like how some NBA fans will transfer their support to whoever Lebron is playing for this week. How best to do that - put on a manufactured competition where ‘teams’ that nobody has any emotional attachment to play each other, make it kiddy-friendly as possible cos you’re not targeting adults who’re set in their ways about supporting patterns. Have a new draft every year so that the guys you liked watching last year will be in different teams this year.

I reckon this has been a long-term strategy on the part of the AFL. Free agency was driven by the AFLPA, but the fact that it weakens the clubs profoundly I reckon the AFL see as a bonus. The fact that the AFL continually centralises stuff like club web presences etc is another example. As is the fact they dole out fund to minnow clubs in a trickle year after year rather than give them a lump sum cash injection so that they can hopefully clear debts and become viable all at once. Keep them dependent.

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Occam’s Razor alternative: the AFL really ARE that clueless.

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Good points, HM. But it could be argued that if this makes the brand stronger and interest in the product stronger then they are doing their job.

Except the AFL commission was set up by the clubs to serve the clubs. Not to serve the commission. But that relationship has long gone. It’s Space Odyssey with Hal taking over.

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Hanlon’s razor :slight_smile:

Concur.

I’m convinced they dislike us rusted-on fans, despite the fact that we’re the lifeblood source of income and support for the clubs and game as a whole. We’ve got pesky long memories and devotion to our clubs’ histories.

You could argue AFL membership goes towards the same aim.

No it wasn’t. It was set up by the clubs because they realised they were destroying themselves with boneheaded business decisions in competition with each other, and that this had the entire league hurtling on a slippery-dip towards doom.

The AFL as a body was intended almost as a house of review, to set safe limitations on the clubs actions, so that the numbskulls elected as part of the latest St Kilda board spill or whatever couldn’t blow the whole thing up out of ignorance. But with the migration away form the suburban grounds and the revenue streams that are centrally administered (TV) increasingly outweighing those that clubs manage (gate takings), the Commission gained increasing power over the purse strings. Nobody involved in setting up the AFL envisioned it becoming the lumbering Frankensteinian tyrant that it is now.

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Yeah, AFL membership was something I forgot to list there. Same principle.

I agree with most of that too.

The commission has morphed from a central body designed to assist the clubs to a monolith which only exists to further the professional and financial interests of the persons who work for it.

The AFL employs ten times more people on an equivalent full time basis than the English Premier League. Ten times!

Something like 30 of its execs get paid at least 50% MORE than the Australian Prime Minister.

Why do we have AFLX? Probably because someone is getting paid 800K to run it. Why do they have a rules committee, or a media arm? Same reason.

The whole organisation just takes public goodwill and faith in its favourite game and turns it into dollars for those lucky few who work there. And everyone else in the industry knows it but nobody says anything because secretly they also want in on the gravy train.

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I think James Hird is about to be announced as AFLX International coach for an tournament in 2020 against Uzbekistan, India & China.

It’s a success because it’s a success because we did it.

Bit more interesting to wonder what would it take to be deemed a failure/ “non-success”?

Meteorite crashes into Docklands?
Nah, special effect- adds to the spectacle

Gill is beaten up beforehand by a bunch of 7 year old superhero wannabes who mistakenly believe he’s a) an evil mastermind or b) an evil mastermind masquerading as a homeless dude.?