Nat Fyfe understands why most traditional fans are lining up to criticise the AFLX concept but the Fremantle star hopes he can play a small part in the AFL's long-term plan to push into overseas markets.
The AFL introduced its short-form format last year in the hope of appealing to a younger generation of fans and one day broadening the game internationally, where full-sized footy ovals are much harder to come by than rectangular fields.
Last year's inaugural event -- which featured all 18 AFL clubs who mainly selected younger players to feature -- was viewed with a mix of skepticism and curiosity but the league this year doubled down on its desire to transform its new baby into the sport's equivalent of Twenty20 cricket, complete with new franchises and an abundance of bells and whistles.
Gone are the traditional AFL clubs, replaced by four newly created teams - the Flyers, Bolts, Rampage, and Deadlys, captained by Fyfe, Geelong's Patrick Dangerfield, Richmond's Jack Riewoldt and Adelaide's Eddie Betts respectively. Each captain hand-picked their team in a live schoolyard-like draft, with a majority of the AFL's biggest names making themselves available.
On Friday night at Melbourne's Marvel Stadium, the teams will lock horns in a round-robin-style tournament, but even the most ardent AFLX backer knows the event won't be about wins and losses, moreso a chance for a younger audience to enjoy the players expressing themselves on and off the field.
Fyfe is fully aware of the pushback from traditional football fans who view the new concept as a 'Mickey Mouse' tournament that puts players from their clubs at risk of injury for no apparent reason.
"That's just the way most Australians in general look at anything new, with a layer of scepticism," Fyfe tells ESPN. "But this is an opportunity for guys to express their personalities [and showcase] what they're about, show different sides to themselves and have a bit of fun with it.
"The critics have their place, they just want the best for their [AFL] teams ... but if they can view this as something that complements the regular season and helps the players better prepared for AFL, they will probably be more supportive of it.
"At the moment they might be viewing it as risky and something that takes away from AFL and it's something they didn't ask for and don't want ... I hope Friday night shows we can have the best of both worlds."
Fyfe withdrew from last year's tournament at the last minute due to an injury concern but was quick to jump at the chance of playing a key role in this year's event. His squad features the likes of Marcus Bontempelli, Scott Pendlebury, Alex Rance, Isaac Heeney and Michael Hurley, and the 2015 Brownlow medallist says the chance to mix with and learn from players at rival AFL clubs was one of the main reasons he was keen to be involved.
"I'm most excited about the opportunity to mix with the best players in the country, to see how they prepare, and when we're all on the one field together, see what magic we can come up with together," he says.
"In the IRS [Australia's 2017 International Rules Series against Ireland], I didn't know what I was going to get out of that series, but the overwhelming [takeaway] was rubbing shoulders with the best players and seeing what they're doing that you don't ... it's something when you're stuck in clubland you don't get. You can easily lose perspective of what is going on outside of your club ... to have that exposure to other players around the country is so beneficial."
The relaxed, free-flowing nature of AFLX also allows players to briefly escape the rigorous, structured environment of pre-season training, which Fyfe says was hugely appealing.
"It's a bit of fun - footy is such a serious business, you're trying so hard to do the most for your careers and your teams, so any opportunity to lift your eyes off the road for a few minutes and enjoy the game the way it's supposed to be played, the beautiful things about it [is exciting]," the 153-game veteran says. "There's an element of uncertainty and nervousness but overwhelmingly there's a lot of excitement.
"We [the Flyers squad] have a group chat going ... and I tentatively chucked out there 'what sort of gamestyle did we want to play?' and the response was 'no gameplan is the best gameplan' and I think that's great.
"That's the beauty of it - we're all born and raised with the instincts of how to play the game but [AFL clubs] drill down so precisely [with] the gameplans that we think are going to give us the best chance of success. To be able to pull back from that and just play and hopefully let all that excitement and instinct and energy come to life and put on a show for fans, it should be worthwhile."
Also worthwhile is the league's push to one day take a foothold in overseas markets via AFLX, Fyfe tells ESPN.
"[It's going to be a] huge challenge but if that does happen one day, I can sit back as an old man and say I was part of the initiation ... I'll be pretty stoked," he says.