Would be interested to see what fellow RWO'ers think of this.

My initial reaction was lukewarm in the extreme , I guess it could form a development tool in NSW/QLD in teaching the game and possibly a decent format for juniors.

I suspect the main thrust will be in trying to crack the overseas market, which I personally think is an ambitous goal anyway.

Sheedy always thought that the States would be the best bet for cracking a major overseas market. I wonder if they might have a crack with AFLX with a comp focused on the West Coast with maybe 8-10 teams with a roster of 12 players each (initially say 7 Australians plus 5 locals). You could parachute in retired AFL, VFL, WAFL and SANFL players for a condensed two or three month season which would then be supported by full time development teams on the ground the rest of the year. Possibly align all the teams with a University sports programme. Try and get some sort of cable/Fox Sports content.

California would be ideal as weather wise you could run it in the October-December slot, thereby adding media exposure to the only black spot in the calender. Also would allow players outside the AFL system to earn a bit of cash and extra life experiences, don't think quality of product would be a huge issue.