The League Office completed the first draft of the fixture early January, allowing a two week period for clubs to negotiate changes and submit those to the league.

League CEO Matthew Cowling said this years fixture was very tough to produce, but on the whole most clubs had responded positively.

"In some respects our fixture is the most important piece of work we do all year, and it takes the league office a full four weeks to produce it."

The regular season commences on Match 17 for Championship Clubs, with all other divisions commencing their season on March 24.

The league's ABA competition will play over 16 regular season rounds, followed by four weeks of finals. In all competitions, finals have been reduced from five to four week series with best of three series retained for all Grand Finals.

The finals structures will be announced within the next week.

Divisions other than ABA will compete over 17 regular season weekends.

All teams in all divisions will play 20 games this year as the league strives to maximise the use of venues and resources while seeking to ensure clubs and volunteers are not overloaded with home games.

The fixture sees some changes in venues for certain clubs, and three clubs sharing the Veneto Club.

Melbourne Tigers have moved their championship men's and women's programs to Veneto, as have Bulleen men. Blackburn continue to play there. Bulleen Women will continue to play at the Templestowe venue.

Maccabi are on the move, playing at the brand new Bialik College, and new club Camberwell have taken up their spot at Waverly.

Keysborough will play two home games at Chelsea, due to the pressures on Sunday usage at Springers centre.

New teams Mildura, Darebin, Camberwell and Warrandyte all host games in the their first round.

Cowling said that players and clubs could still expect some minor adjustments to fixtures over the coming weeks, all of which will be published as they are received.

Article courtesy of www.bigv.com.au