Australian Football League Pre-season Competition - Current Format

Current Format

Prior to 2011, the competition had been played as a simple sixteen-team knockout tournament; however, the expansion of the league to seventeen teams (and eighteen for 2012) forced a change of format. Under the current format, the first round sees the eighteen teams divided into six pools of three teams; each pool then plays a round robin of lightning matches on a single night. Each team then plays two full-length matches over the following two weekends, and the two teams with the best records over the four matches will play off in a Grand Final.

Most games, including the final, are night matches. Normal games are typically played slightly short of full length (quarters lasting 17½ or 18 minutes plus time on instead of the normal 20), and with an extended interchange bench of six or eight players to offer less physically demanding conditions for the pre-season games. Lightning matches are played over two halves of 20 minutes plus time on.

When the competition was played as a knock-out tournament, teams which had been eliminated from the preseason competition played practice matches against each other. These practice matches were known as the 'NAB Challenge', and were often played outside the major capital cities.

Particularly in the 21st century, the pre-season competition has been used as a location to trial new rule changes before they are introduced into the premiership season.