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In the background, clubs have been organising their unofficial practice matches, set to be played in the week preceding the Community Series, which is considered the pre-season\u2019s official set of practice games. <\/p>\n
The Community Series will run from Wednesday, February 25 to Sunday, March 1, with matches to consist of premiership season timings, though there will be no interchange cap. <\/p>\n
Clubs will select extended squads of 30 players, with 18 on the field, eight interchange and four emergencies. <\/p>\n
All Community Series matches will be broadcast live on Foxtel and Kayo. <\/p>\n
A number of the unofficial fixtures have already been devised, with more to be announced as they come. <\/p>\n
As has become customary, the unofficial practice matches will consist of varying timings and game situations, to be confirmed by clubs closer to the date. <\/p>\n
UNOFFICIAL MATCH SIMULATIONS (all times AEDT) \u2014 MORE DETAILS TO COME<\/p>\n
Monday, February 16<\/p>\n
Hawthorn v Geelong, Kennedy Community Centre, time TBC<\/p>\n
Wednesday, February 18<\/p>\n
Brisbane v Carlton, Brighton Homes Arena, 6.00pm (4 x 30 min quarters, with extended bench)<\/p>\n
Thursday, February 19<\/p>\n
Gold Coast v St Kilda, People First Stadium, 7.45pm (4 x 20 min quarters, plus time on)<\/p>\n
Western Bulldogs v Sydney, Mission Whitten Oval, time TBC<\/p>\n
Friday February 20<\/p>\n
Essendon v Richmond, NEC Hangar, 10.30am (game length TBC)*<\/p>\n
Port Adelaide v Adelaide, Alberton Oval, 6.00pm (4 x 20 min quarters, plus time on)*<\/p>\n
Collingwood v Greater Western Sydney, La Trobe University Sports Park (Bundoora), time TBC<\/p>\n
Melbourne v North Melbourne, Casey Fields, time TBC (seven periods of play)<\/p>\n
Details TBC<\/p>\n
Fremantle v West Coast<\/p>\n
*confirmed live stream<\/p>\n
FULL 2026 COMMUNITY SERIES FIXTURE (all times AEDT)<\/p>\n
Wednesday, February 25<\/p>\n
Carlton v Geelong, Ikon Park, 7.10pm<\/p>\n
Thursday, February 26<\/p>\n
Sydney v GWS, Henson Park, 4.10pm<\/p>\n
Brisbane v Gold Coast, Brighton Homes Arena, 7.10pm<\/p>\n
Friday, February 27<\/p>\n
Melbourne v Richmond, Mars Stadium, 4.10pm<\/p>\n
Western Bulldogs v Hawthorn, Mission Whitten Oval, 7.10pm<\/p>\n
Saturday, February 28<\/p>\n
St Kilda v Essendon, Mars Stadium, 3.10pm<\/p>\n
Fremantle v Adelaide, Rushton Park, 6.10pm<\/p>\n
Sunday, March 1<\/p>\n
North Melbourne v Collingwood, Mars Stadium, 3.10pm<\/p>\n
West Coast v Port Adelaide, Mineral Resources Park, 6.10pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL clubs are back into the swing of things, gearing up for the new season and all the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,223545,64,63,689,55,639,223546,223549,223550,223541,223542,188666,2105,2485,1139,14380,223543,3231,55985,223552,223548,647,7198,33310,677,222600,6082,148140,223544,223547,223551,701,1124,85,1122,223553,223540,660,698],"class_list":["post-425711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-arranged-match-simulation","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brighton-homes-arena","tag-casey-fields","tag-community-series-fixture","tag-confirmed-match-simulation","tag-full-aami-community-series","tag-game-situations","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-greater-western-sydney-giants","tag-hawthorn-v","tag-interchange-cap","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-la-trobe-university","tag-match-simulation-details","tag-match-simulations","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-willson","tag-mineral-resources-park","tag-oceania","tag-origin-match","tag-port-adelaide","tag-practice-games","tag-practice-match-simulations","tag-premiership-season-timings","tag-preseason-fixture","tag-queensland","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-unofficial-match-simulations","tag-unofficial-practice-matches","tag-victoria","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}