International AFL expansion gets player approval

AFL players have backed AFLX as the league explores plans for a November tournament in Hong Kong.

The AFL’s competition committee have the future of the seven-a-side tournament on its agenda at next Thursday’s initial four-hour meeting.

The AFL will formulate an action plan for the future of AFLX to be ticked off by the AFL Commission this year.

That could include rule changes for the trial concept, prize money for tournaments and future games in Hong Kong and, one day, even India.

AFL project manager David Stevenson yesterday said the league was keen to push ahead with the format after three round-robin games this year.

That could include a tournament in November in Hong Kong, with players seemingly keen to put their hand up for more AFLX.

McLachlan’s vision includes franchises owned in a BBL-style league as the AFL aggressively pursues a yearround football calendar.

“We had a really thorough review process and we went out to players, clubs, media, fans and umpires and now we are looking forward to planning what the next iteration is,’’ Stevenson said.

“We have some options. Gill (McLachlan) has floated the Hong Kong tournament and we have got to work through those dimensions.

“We have got the competition committee next week so we are engaged with them. Then it will go to the AFL executive and we will build a recommendation that will ultimately go to the commission for approval.

“Firstly the players’ feedback was really strong in terms of their enjoyment of playing the game, which is important to us. That was really heartening to hear.”

The AFL is consulting with the AFLPA about what offseason tournaments may look like, with an International Rules series also slated for New York in November.

February’s AFLX games featuring strong teams from North Melbourne and Melbourne were vastly superior to some average contests between young teams.

The league isn’t against changing rules after complaints about too few players, not enough stoppages and not enough time to celebrate goals.

Clubs will also be keen to hear the AFL’s plans for incentives for players and clubs including prize money after this year’s exhibition series with rewards.

“From a rules perspective we don’t feel like the rules are perfect just yet,” Stevenson said. “We have a little bit of tweaking to do, but overall the main objective was to attract new fans and we felt like that happened.”