Talking Footy

AFLX in Hong Kong in November? Gillon McLachlan flags international move
By Ronny Lerner2 March 2018 — 12:00pm

AFL chief Gillon McLachlan has declared the radical AFLX experiment a success and has flagged the prospect of a November tournament being staged in Hong Kong in the future.
The dramatically revamped version of footy made its debut last month with three tournaments taking place in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.

AFLX has been met with mixed reviews to say the least, but McLachlan’s enthusiasm for the game’s newest incarnation is palpable and he is keen to start involving retired players too.
“It was completely new and there was a lot of young talent playing from a standing start, but the footy got better as the weekend went on and people bought into it and there are things we need to change but I reckon there’s something to work with there,” McLachlan told 3AW on Friday.
“I think the future is enormous, whether it’s international [or not] I think you can have it as a distinct product potentially with different owners and you can involve past players like in the BBL [Big Bash League] who might be able to play.

“I’d love to see us have a crack at a tournament in November and take a number of teams somewhere into Asia and take it there.

''We’ve got venue availability, we’ve got new audiences that are closer to the game, it’s a bit easier for new people to consume so they’re the sort of things we’re talking about.

“The one we’ve been talking about is Hong Kong. Take 10-12 players to Hong Kong, and take them after the draft, you have to take two of your top two draft picks, maybe you have to have one recently retired player, and then a number of other players and make it a bit interesting and have a look at it.

''They’re some of the ideas we’re kicking around.”

Hong Kong wouldn’t be the first international city to host some form of Australian rules football at the elite level.

Wellington and Shanghai have already staged matches for premiership points while Cape Town, London, Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles have all had their taste of AFL recently as well in the form of pre-season and/or exhibition matches.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/AFL/aflx-i ... 4z2ia.html