Will International footy reshape Australian Football?

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Will International footy reshape Australian Football?

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Monday, November 16 2009 @ 09:38 pm ACDT

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spor...-over-afl/

At the very end of this article about some young athletes choosing cricket over Australian football, there is mention from Victorian cricket coach Greg Shipperd of the different forms of cricket:

"In football you play in front of big crowds and we're playing in front of big crowds and that's only going to get better as Twenty20 continues to kick on.

"In football you're playing one form of the game whereas in cricket you're playing three forms of the game so your mind is challenged to be skilled up for three different forms ... for a young athlete that would be an attractive proposition."

Not actually sure I agree with all of that, I suspect more simply that T20 is an exciting version, and the money is in IPL, so it's more the $$$ and excitement of that particular sport, versus multiple options. But certainly it has helped cricket in several areas.

There's talk that when Western Sydney join the AFL, making 18 clubs, the NAB Cup pre-season may be dropped. It would be a good time for the AFL to put on a 9-a-side tournament over say 2 weeks, a good chance for young players to impress and push for Round 1 and a few older guys to top up if they've had a late pre-season. Play one round on the GC and one in Western Sydney, or give Tassie a look in or dare I say it, New Zealand.

Alas clubs are very conservative with their players leading into the season, even though 9s would be very similar to competitive to small match simulation drills - clubs have been playing intraclub trials like that forever, it'd just be nice to get some "official" inter-club matches on. Even if it is just rookie list and 1st and 2nd year players that end up getting selected.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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