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AFLX

AFLX is a variation of Australian rules football designed in 2017 to be played on a soccer field (significantly smaller than the Australian 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 variant AFL 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 of Australia. The AFL billed AFLX as its answer to Twenty20 or rugby sevens.

The AFL held two official Australian Football League (AFL) pre-season AFLX competitions featuring senior AFL clubs and players, in 2018 and 2019, but these were unpopular with spectators and did not return in 2020.

The variation continues to be promoted by the AFL Commission as a participation sport in development regions and areas, and particularly where full-sized cricket grounds are not available. Since the COVID-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 rectangular soccer-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:

AFLX was first trialled at Arden Street Oval in January 2017. Two months later, it was trialed at was first trialled on a soccer pitch at Lakeside Stadium in a match between the Port Melbourne Football Club and Coburg Football Club. It was launched by AFL manager of football operations Simon Lethlean that July and later hailed by the AFL as key means of kickstarting Australian 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.

AFLX pre-season competition was launched by AFL chief executive officer Gillon McLachlan at Docklands Stadium on 6 February 2018. McLachlan said that AFLX would help promote football internationally.

The 2018 competition attracted more than 40,000 fans to tournaments in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. 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 on Channel Seven's secondary channels.

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.

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