Essendon coaching legend Kevin Sheedy believes the upcoming AFLX experiment could be the perfect product to take Australian Rules Football to the rest of the world.
“Let’s give it go, have a look at it and then see what we think,” Sheedy said
“It’s an exciting concept and promising opportunity to create a version of our game that we can sell to the world.”
“In many countries, especially in the United States, it’s very difficult to find the facilities and ovals to host an AFL game.”
Sheedy said the modified rules were similar to many training drills teams and coaches were already executing across the pre-season.
“Many training drills done over pre-season are modified games anyway, we have been doing it for years, corridor training, repetition of balls coming, fast movement, we actually already train like this,” Sheedy said
“In fact, the concept of a modified version of AFL isn’t new, Essendon legend Jack Clarke was talking about taking our game to the rest of the world back in the 1960s”
“Jack was a visionary and believed we needed to change the game by reducing the number of players on the field to make it more attractive and easy to follow”
“This game is always in transition and the day we stop looking at ways to improve and do it better, we are in trouble, because we need to keep growing and evolving.”