With the 2017 football season fast approaching, the AFL has unveiled its new pre-season competition, renaming it as the JLT Community Series.

The AFL has stuck with the three-games-over-four-weeks format for every club and at venues right around the country, but there will be a change in scheduling in 2017, with Etihad Stadium hosting four matches over the opening three weeks and none in the final week while it reverts back to concert mode.

Several AFL pre-season matches will also comprise double-headers featuring the new AFL Women’s competition. 

The MFL Sponsored Geelong Football Club will kick off the start to their 2017 pre-season campaign against Hawthorn at York Park on February 17th, nearly 10 years after they last travelled across Bass Strait. On that day, April 22 in 2007, the Hawks overcame a slow start to beat Geelong by four points.

History tells us that the following week the Cats slumped to 2-3 with a loss to North Melbourne, before going on a 15-match winning streak that laid the foundation for that year’s premiership.

In fact, since then Geelong and Hawthorn have won seven of the 10 premierships on offer, with the Cats or Hawks featuring in every grand final bar those in 2010 and 2016.

After its match-up with Hawthorn, Geelong will have the last weekend of February off before travelling to Richmond Oval in suburban Adelaide on March 5 for a clash with the Crows.

The Cats will round out their pre-season on March 12 at the picturesque QE Oval in Bendigo against Essendon as part of the Country Game initiative, giving Cats skipper Joel Selwood the opportunity to play in his home town.

Friday February 17

Hawthorn vs Geelong @ University of Tasmania Stadium (York Park), 7:40pm

Sunday March 5

Adelaide vs. Geelong @ Richmond Oval, Adelaide, 2:05pm

Sunday March 12

Geelong vs. Essendon @ QE Oval, Bendigo, 4:10pm

(All times AEDT)