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5 hours ago
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An online AFL game has drawn more than 300,000 players since it was launched less than a month ago, creating a social media sensation that burst forth to become a talking point at bars and even in MCG bathrooms. Just who must be delisted, and who then drafted, to make an AFL dynasty that never was?
The creator of Footy Redraft, Greg Butyn, says he had the game’s bare bones working “over a night or two” in July. Early feedback from friends was positive. But the response quickly became something more, his first inkling he may have created something meaningful.
“I sent it to a couple of mates and they just said it was good,” he Butyn says. “And then the next day I was getting messages from them and they were like, ‘mate, I’ve been thinking about it all day at work. I can’t wait to get home and play it’.
“I went around to my mates’ house, showed them the game, sat on the couch, and they just sat there glued to their phones playing it instead of watching the footy that was on TV. And I was like, ‘I might be onto something here’.”
The losses linger, but it is the hope that keeps footy fans coming back. That mix of nostalgia, pain, glory and what-if inside the mind of every supporter? Butyn managed to gamify it.
The 40-year data analyst admits his life as a long-suffering Western Bulldogs supporter – highlighted by memories of their remarkable 2016 flag run – has moulded his outlook on the sport. That then seeped into the game.
“There’s that real feeling of, oh, ‘I’ve got a really good team together, and they’ve got rolled in the prelim’, and that makes you come back for that time that you do win as an underdog,” he says.
“And then, for the player-side, we definitely debate who should have gone at what pick. We love putting together our redrafts of what order would we have done it. This game literally lets you go and do that.”
From a humble message on social media announcing the game on 13 July, 20,000 players found it within a day. Two and a half weeks later, that figure crossed 300,000. The total number of seasons simulated stands at more than four million.
The game allows you to rewind two decades and take a club’s real list, and refashion it for success, using the player performance data from actual AFL seasons.
“I thought maybe the 20-year draft would be too long for people to ‘get’. If you’re 25, do you really remember some of the Cats or Hawthorn players, or even the Richmond team?,” Butyn says.
“I was a bit worried the demographic was just for me and my mates, and then once I posted it on Twitter [X] and had a few guys share it, it really blew up. I was really surprised.”
The game has already been mined for content by AFL-endorsed creator Dan Gorringe.
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“Someone sent me the link of Dan Gorringe going through the game for half an hour on YouTube, and I still can’t watch it because I don’t want to, I’m almost embarrassed by it,” Butyn says.
“But all the feedback I’ve received – like if I read the comment section anywhere, whether it be on Twitter, whether it be on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram – everyone seems so positive. I’m actually really shocked, and no one has pointed out something dumb, like ‘He’s in the wrong position’, or ‘That guy had a better season’.”
The purity and simplicity of the game is part of its charm, a refreshing counterpoint in a football information ecosystem that is now largely dominated by gambling. Even the AFL’s own fixture lists gambling odds next to both teams for each match.
Butyn is in no rush to commercialise Footy Redraft, however, and has already knocked back two investment proposals. “The offer would have to be, I don’t know, not going to get bought just for a couple of bucks. I think the game’s too fun and it’s got too much goodwill, and people are enjoying it too much to spoil it with ads,” he says.
“It has to be worth it. And I feel like a game like this, it’s got a pretty shallow ceiling [in terms of potential market] being in Australia only, and I can’t see a way to monetise it without also spoiling it.”
Instead he has simply called for donations from keen players. So far, his takings have covered web server costs, at around $80 per month, “plus a couple of pints, and anything on top that I can get from here will definitely go towards a night out at some stage”.
Just as the game is addictive to play, so too is it to develop. Butyn has overhauled the game’s hall of fame and rewards system already, and is now starting to test a trade mechanic.
“But I’m throwing up if it actually detracts or adds to the game because it really breaks up the cadence of drafting, and re-going. Maybe the fun bit is not having to think too much and just spinning through all these old names. Maybe that’s the fun of the game.”
