AFLX revealed: Who your club plays and when

[Axe Man]

Bulldogs legend thrilled with his 'little baby'

THE WESTERN Bulldogs aren't buying into any negativity about AFLX, with the club viewing the new competition as a helpful conditioning tool for its younger players.

Like many other clubs, the Dogs have selected a youthful squad for the unique format, with a total of only 65 games of senior experience on display in Saturday's hit-outs in Sydney against the Swans and Brisbane.

They will unveil all three of the players they took in November's NAB AFL Draft, with first-round picks Aaron Naughton and Ed Richards and late selection Callum Porter all part of a side captained by Jack Redpath, who has only played 34 games in seven seasons at Whitten Oval.

Development manager Rohan Smith will make his debut as a senior coach, and the Bulldog great is enthusiastic about the opportunities for everyone involved in a series he believes has a future.

"We wanted to use (the competition) as a little bit of a development style, and we thought of it as learning for first- and second-year players in our squad," Smith said on Friday.

"We wanted to look at it as a positive, (and) we wanted to see our future stars playing. Hopefully some of these kids play 200-plus games for our footy club.

"It's a little bit of an unknown, the game style, but looking it, it's going to be exciting, and if you speak to the kids that are going to play, they're all excited.

"We wanted to give them a little bit of exposure, travelling, playing on TV, (senior) opposition and in front of a good crowd.

"I'm excited to look after my own team for the first time.

"We think of it as a positive, not a negative."

A defensive playmaker in 300 games in the red, white and blue, Smith says he'll employ an offensive game style for the abbreviated form of the game.

Senior coach Luke Beveridge has given his former teammate free rein for the competition, and Smith is looking forward to the challenge.

"Bevo has been really good, he's been a little bit relaxed and said this is my little baby and I can do whatever I want with it, so I've got a few tricks up my sleeve," he said.

"We're going to have an attacking style of play, but I think AFLX lends itself to the defensive side of the game as well.

"If (the players) can correlate that (balance) from the AFLX into their AFL game, it's going help them develop a little bit quicker."

And with Smith getting a taste for the coaches' box, the 44-year-old revealed he has ambitions to take charge of his own side on a full-time basis.

Smith spent time as the club's backline coach in recent years before transitioning into the development manager role at the start of 2017.

"We'll see how we go after the weekend (but) I'd love to coach my own team, but it's not something on the radar at the moment," he said.

"I just want to do my (regular) job properly at this point in time and see how we go."

[jeemak]

It’s basically training but with more space.

I’m actually watching it and missing the congestion and the genius behind stoppage strategy and getting the ball into space.

There’s also no grid defence, obviously. Which is a shame, I love defensive set ups.

Anyone else think the game would have been extremely vanilla in the supposed glory days if the skills were as good as they are now?

[SonofScray]

Watching it onand off tonight. No thanks.

[Testekill]

Yeah this is dire. The skills in AFLW might not be a good standard but at least it's not boring to watch like this

[MrMahatma]

Yeah this is dire. The skills in AFLW might not be a good standard but at least it's not boring to watch like this

Really?

Personally prefer X to W.

[Testekill]

Really?

Personally prefer X to W.

The thing about attacking footy is that it's really interesting when teams have to work for it. Here the dial is turned to 11 attack and maybe 3 defense and thus all the goals being scored don't mean much when players are going coast to coast in two kicks.

Also the 'zooper' goals are nothing special because teams kick like a dozen of them a game in normal matches and they're not worth extra points so why bother here?

[bornadog]

Yeah this is dire. The skills in AFLW might not be a good standard but at least it's not boring to watch like this

I watched a half and thought it was a bit boring.

[Throughandthrough]

I was there

Left before the end


Hooray for beer

[jeemak]

I was there

Left before the end


Hooray for beer

Shocking.........your avatar still mesmerises me.

[SonofScray]

It's just blokes stringing one decent possession in a chain of two and then having a ping at goal from a relatively normal, direct goal kicking spot.

The elements of footy most of us bemoan the loss of are: positional play, attrition, one on one contests, high marking and big hits in open play.

This circus gave us very little of that, if not more of the same, dressed up in gaudy packaging.

[Throughandthrough]

talking to an AFL player he's keen as its something different to do during pre-season

[jazzadogs]

talking to an AFL player he's keen as its something different to do during pre-season

It's not REALLY different though. It would be almost identical to some of the keepings off games played during training sessions. The only addition is they have stupid rules and play against opposition.

[Sedat]

It's gone from one extreme (rolling mauls, awful congestion, excessive stoppages, tackle-fests, low scoring) to the other (no defensive pressure, no contested possessions, no tackling, scoring far too easy). If they tidy up a few elements to prevent the game from resembling glorified circle work, it could be ok.

What the AFL needs to do is fix up the core product because it is broken if a Richmond 2017 style game plan is the new normal.

[bornadog]

What the AFL needs to do is fix up the core product because it is broken if a Richmond 2017 style game plan is the new normal.

Sorry to repeat the same old thing, but no rule change will make the game look like you or anyone else wants it to look like.

The game just keeps evolving and evolving.

[SonofScray]

Sorry to repeat the same old thing, but no rule change will make the game look like you or anyone else wants it to look like.

The game just keeps evolving and evolving.

Coaches need to be prepared to try something different. Tactics and development seems very much a case of follow the leader. Footy is an incredibly confected, homogeneous world.