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Full Noise by SN
Story time: The rise and fall of AFLX
Tom Morris • May 13th, 2026 7:00 pm
This week, I’m doing it back to front. From the end to the start.
So after COVID, AFLX essentially merged with AFL 9s.
In 2019, the EJ Whitten Legends Game, which has since been rebranded to something awesome here at SEN and 7, attracted just 6,000 fans at AAMI Park in what was the death knell for the concept.
Earlier in 2019, the AFLX’s second season… The AFL made several scoring adjustments. Behinds were worth two, goals 12 and Super goals 20!
But like inflation, the currency was broken.
In 2018, more than 40,000 fans come to tournaments in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
But what about the media conference? With Gil McLachlan surrounded by acrobats… Well, it’s fair to say Gil and other senior staff were blindsided by that. And I think the image still haunts him today.
OK… That’s how it ended. Here's how it started.
It was early April 2016. An email went around at AFLHQ to the executive.
Hi all, we are conducting a ‘staff innovation challenge’
We are asking you to pitch your funnest, craziest, most worthwhile left-field ideas Shark Tank style.
And not just that, there’s a $10,000 prize of investment funding for the winner.
Game Development boss Grant Williams had been thinking for some time about a shorter format of the game.
Future BBL CEO Alastair Dobson was also at the AFL. And there was a shortage of football ovals in QLD and NSW, plus a desire to take the game overseas.
Grant Williams spoke to people who had similar ideas… Andrew Gee Gee, Andrew Hughes, Simon Laughton to name a few.
Together, they came up with a concept… AFL Express.
Across two half days at the Mike Sheahan Media Centre, middle management and the AFL executive put forward various ideas.
But those in the room said the presentation for AFL Express was most compelling.
Clubs were canvassed. Pre-season games were not popular, while one executive AFL staffer wondered out loud if you could take AFLX to a soccer ground in England – like Fulham’s Craven Cottage – and pay for a host of recently retired stars to play in London.
The league also wanted to play in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Everything was on the cards.
But the clincher was this…. The final slide on the PowerPoint read “Don’t get left behind, jump on the AFL Express!’
The room erupted!
The photo accompanying this phrase was Gil McLachlan’s face on the front of a Thomas the Tank Engine train.
A working group was developed with rules. The Coburg Lions faced the Northern Blues on Sep 4.
The AFL also booked out the Victorian Institute of Sport, locked the gates and played another VFL match.
There was a game at Marvel with GPS Tracking on players. Champion Data came and did stats.
Across two years of trials in 2016 and 2017, scoring in AFLX (it had since outgrown AFL Express) increased by 342%.
They were onto a winner! Or so they thought… But then came that fateful media conference.
Gil flanked by circus performers, acrobats, and a giant football.
And even though the concept had some merit, and was well intentioned, and its supporters say deserved a longer run...
Unfortunately, it was that image that will define the collapse of AFLX…
Plus of course, the Gil on the front of this train… The AFL Express having docked for the last time!
