It won't. In shortened versions of other sports, some of that might be true. You are likely to see more sixes and brilliant fielding in a T20 game than you are in a day's Test cricket. More tries are likely in Rugby Sevens as space is created that allows players to dodge through more gaps and explode from a pack more often than in traditional rugby.

However, AFLX will be played at the same venue as the traditional game, on a modified field by players representing teams with comical made up names and no winning imperative, in gear that makes any cry to "play for the jumper" no more than laughable nostalgia. The only worthy nostalgia might be the thought of four captains, with all the kids at school lined up and selected in order. Pity those left behind. The total formula behind this space-age gimmick diminishes the game. To be honest, kick-to-kick with Jeremy Howe among a pack of players at one end and Jeremy McGovern in the mix at the other, with Eddie Betts roving for the loose balls at one end and Daniel Rioli at the other would showcase the most thrilling aspects of the game more effectively. Or Betts and Daniel Menzel and Gary Ablett trying trick shots for goal from impossible angles. Not that the players’ willingness to be involved in AFLX is unreasonable. They are being paid, as they should be, for marketing the game and will do things to help grow the game, although it’s arguable whether any of the hundred needs any extra beyond the generous numbers the game now provides.

It's not their involvement that is the issue. It is what surrounds their involvement that is troubling. Why? Because maintaining community support ought to be a factor underpinning AFL decision-making, engendering connection with the fans – both rusted on and new to the game – that is genuine as the profile of the participants grows and the gap between grassroots and the elite grows. This concept is not even close to doing that. That the AFL has the gall to alleviate club concerns about potential injury by telling them that the tournament is the equivalent of a hard training run and then charge adults $15 to watch does nothing to bring fans and the big business of AFL closer; perhaps the opposite. Research apparently suggests children like AFLX and are attracted to the whiz-bang nature of the event. What I saw last year was more fizz-proof than whiz and whirl.

So to that end allowing kids under 12 to attend the game free is a good idea, but what – if you pay an extra $10 you can send them into the kids' zone, which is on the boundary, and presumably gives them access, or should that be X-cess, to autographs and selfies with their heroes. Good luck telling your 10-year-old you're not willing to pay the extra $10. Right now AFLX 2019 is a vain attempt to use the great game of Australian football – a game that is likely to be even more exciting next year with a new set of well-researched rule changes being introduced – to market Marvel Comics, a brand that follows Colonial, Telstra and Etihad. No punter would have picked that quadrella. When you read the marketing fluff that has lobbed this week, you wonder whether the AFL is trying to sell its game or its multimillion-dollar relationship with Marvel. "Dangerfield. Riewoldt. Fyfe. Betts. Four superhero captains. Four unique superpowers. Four superstar line-ups. Battling it out to unlock the ultimate power."

E-sports is a growing phenomenon, children love make-believe games and there is competition for eyeballs among the gaming generation. But the sad reality is the AFLX draft, where the four captains, Patrick Dangerfield, Jack Riewoldt, Betts and Nat Fyfe will pick their 14-man squad from 100 eligible players, will, potentially, be of more interest than the event. The game we have is already great and doesn’t need to be made great again. Use technology and creativity and innovation to sell it to the world. Find ways to attract people to AFL when the sport isn't a rite of passage for them. Go your hardest. But a half-baked version of the real thing, dressed up in make believe costumes won’t do it. Leave that to Marvel.