THE 2026 Talent League postseason is set to get underway this weekend, starting with a jam-packed Wildcard Round. The 13 competing teams have been split into Metro and Country conferences for the Wildcard and Quarter Final fixtures, before crossing over for the Preliminary Final stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
>> SCROLL to see the final ladder & fixtures<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tasmania has been allocated to the Country pool, meaning the conference’s top-ranked team (Dandenong Stingrays) gains automatic finals entry. Wildcard Round will determine the remaining seven finalists, made up of six victors and the highest-ranked loser from the Metro pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Northern Knights secured the minor premiership this year and will have the unique advantage of hosting Wildcard weekend in a triple-header at Preston City Oval. Country sides will battle it out at La Trobe University on the Saturday, while Tasmania takes on Bendigo in a standalone game on home turf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Talent League finals series gets underway on the weekend of September 5-6, with a quartet of Quarter Finals. Then come the Preliminary finals on September 12 and\/or 13, followed by the decider – locked in for Saturday September 19. All finals venues and times are to be confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n OVERALL:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Northern Knights COUNTRY CONFRENCE:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Dandenong Stingrays (automatic finals entry) METRO CONFRENCE:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Northern Knights <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gippsland Power (2nd C) vs. Murray Bushrangers (7th C) GWV Rebels (4th C) vs. Geelong Falcons (5th C) Northern Knights (1st M) vs. Eastern Ranges (6th M) Western Jets (2nd M) vs. Oakleigh Chargers (5th M) Tasmania Devils (3rd C) vs. Bendigo Pioneers (6th C) Calder Cannons (3rd M) vs. Sandringham Dragons (4th M) Bye: <\/strong>Dandenong Stingrays (1st C)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n WC = Wildcard | QF = Quarter Final | PF = Preliminary Final<\/p>\n\n\n\n QUARTER FINALS:<\/strong> QF 1: <\/strong>Highest ranked Metro WC winner vs. Highest ranked Metro WC loser PRELIMINARY FINALS:<\/strong> PF 1: <\/strong>QF 1 winner vs. QF 4 winner GRAND FINAL:<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE 2026 Talent League postseason is set to get underway this weekend, starting with a jam-packed Wildcard Round. The 13 competing teams have been split into Metro and Country conferences for the Wildcard and Quarter Final fixtures, before crossing over for the Preliminary Final stage. >> SCROLL to see the final ladder & fixtures Tasmania […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":214684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18050,11586,11587,11588,11589,11590,11591,11592,11593,8,11594,11595,11596,20172,11597,3134,11598],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afl-draft","category-bendigo-pioneers","category-calder-cannons","category-dandenong-stingrays","category-eastern-ranges","category-geelong-falcons","category-gippsland-power","category-gwv-rebels","category-murray-bushrangers","category-news","category-northern-knights","category-oakleigh-chargers","category-sandringham-dragons","category-talent-league","category-tasmania-devils","category-victoria","category-western-jets"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222074"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222077,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222074\/revisions\/222077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}FINAL LADDER ORDER<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2. Western Jets
3. Dandenong Stingrays
4. Gippsland Power
5. Calder Cannons
6. Sandringham Dragons
7. Oakleigh Chargers
8. Tasmania Devils
9. Eastern Ranges
10. GWV Rebels
11. Geelong Falcons
12. Bendigo Pioneers
13. Murray Bushrangers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Gippsland Power
3. Tasmania Devils
4. GWV Rebels
5. Geelong Falcons
6. Bendigo Pioneers
7. Murray Bushrangers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Western Jets
3. Calder Cannons
4. Sandringham Dragons
5. Oakleigh Chargers
6. Eastern Ranges<\/p>\n\n\n\nWILDCARD ROUND FIXTURE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Saturday August 29, 11:45am @ La Trobe University<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saturday August 29, 2:15pm @ La Trobe University<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunday August 30, 10:00am @ Preston City Oval<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunday August 30, 12:30pm @ Preston City Oval<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunday August 30, 1:10pm @ KGV Oval<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunday August 30, 3:00pm @ Preston City Oval<\/p>\n\n\n\nFINALS STRUCTURE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Saturday September 5 and\/or Sunday September 6<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
QF 2: <\/strong>Second ranked Metro WC winner vs. Third ranked Metro WC winner
QF 3: <\/strong>Dandenong Stingrays vs. Third ranked Country WC winner
QF 4: <\/strong>Highest ranked Country WC winner vs. Second ranked Country WC winner<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saturday September 12 and\/or Sunday September 13<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
PF 2: <\/strong>QF 2 winner vs. QF 3 winner<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saturday September 19<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n