Round one kicks off on February 7 and sees Collingwood again travelling internationally, this year playing West Coast at Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town, South Africa, and other games in Darwin, the Gold Coast, Perth, Melbourne, Launceston and Canberra.
The first round is spread over three weeks, with the Cape Town game having the first week to itself, then three games spread the length and breadth of the country in week two before the round wraps up with four games – including two in Melbourne – in week three.
AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan said there were a number of factors behind the scheduling decisions.
"We wanted to play the South African game and that was the only weekend we could have it. It also enables us to get all of our games in the NAB Cup in prime time spots, so the most amount of people can get to watch them," he said.
"In terms of no games in Victoria in the first couple of weeks – that's just a quirk of venue availability. In the first round, there are two games in Victoria – they just happen to be in the third weekend of round one."
McLachlan said it was exciting taking a game to South Africa.
"We think in the end that the Dubai experiment was a great success last year … South Africa has interest to us and NAB commercially, but moreover it's an area where we've been spending a lot of our game development investment," he said.
"We've got 10,000 registered players over there now … it's a real opportunity where there is potentially large participation and potentially AFL players coming out of another country. So it'll be great to take an elite game over there."
Rounds two could see games at Telstra Dome, Subiaco, AAMI Stadium or Skilled Stadium, depending on results, week three Telstra Dome, Subiaco or AAMI Stadium while the March 14 final is at a venue to be decided.
McLachlan said it was important to take the game across the country.
"Some [of the stadiums] are contracted, but moreover that's what we want to do – the NAB Cup is a different competition. Young players are playing, we trial new rules and it rolls into the NAB Regional Challenge," he said.
"We want to get our game out there to as many people, nationally, as we can. We've always used it like that and we're pleased to do that again."
McLachlan also confirmed the NAB Challenge would take place from round two.
"As in previous years, we'll get to a lot of regional centres. There will still be some NAB Challenge series matches in the city, but we get to a lot of regional centres and they're remarkably successful," he said.
Click here to see full fixture.
