Despite reports the AFL floated the AFLX concept at the recent club CEO’s meeting Richmond footy manager Neil Balme says he knows nothing of its potential introduction.
“They may well have floated it but I know nothing about it other than what I’ve read,” he told SEN’s Hungry for Sport.
“That’ll be interesting for all of us to see what the AFL have negotiated on our behalves.
“It hasn’t been announced (officially), it hasn’t been discussed so who knows what it will grow to. It may well be a very worthy thing.
“But it’s certainly not something that is on the club agenda.”
While skepticism permeates the merits of the AFL’s latest brainchild, Balme said similar thought patterns surrounded the idea of T20 cricket when it was first floated.
Short-form cricket now dictates the direction of the sport.
While the AFL is yet to release the ins and outs the AFLX structure, one senior player has already said he won’t be taking part.
“It’s clearly a grab for money and publicity, like most of what the AFL does,” he said.
“If they can buy a few players to have a run around, then good on them, but the risks in terms of injury, and the possibility for incident to shape careers from a game simply played for the AFL’s benefit isn’t for me.
“I think a lot of players will be in the same boat.
“What I reckon you’ll end up with a lot of retired players playing, and good for them, but how long that holds the attention of the public for is very much debatable.”
VFL club’s Port Melbourne and Coburg played an AFL-driven trial of AFLX during this year's pre-season.