AFL's existing pre-season format is likely to be axed as league looks to extend regular season Winners ... Brisbane Lions could be the final NAB Cup winners. THE AFL's long-running NAB Cup format seems certain to be consigned to history at Monday's Commission meeting. Clubs are in agreement about an abbreviated pre-season series, with the only point of conjecture whether to play two or three practice matches. Clubs canvassed in recent weeks say they believe an official practice match series without a Grand Final would be a perfect preparation for the year. I want to stay a Hawk: Buddy In a recent football managers meeting some clubs proposed an under-23 game for the first practice match before two full-strength matches but it is not known if that has any support at AFL level. The AFL spoke with chief executives at yesterday's Creswick conference about the new season format, which would involve the home-and-away season starting a week earlier. The only issue with an earlier start to the year is a marquee game between Adelaide and Port Adelaide at their new Adelaide Oval home ground. The league had hoped to kick off the season with a grandstand game but they cannot access the ground until the last weekend of March. So the Power and Crows might both play away games in Round 1 before the Round 2 game at Adelaide Oval. The AFL Commission still needs to ratify the two-bye submission which would see the league playing 24 weeks of football in which each side would play 22 games. But with agreement imminent on early access to the MCG and a raft of grounds available in mid-March there seems little obstacle. There have been official pre-season competitions and Grand Finals as far back as 1956, with Brisbane winning the most recent version of the NAB Cup.