{"id":44950,"date":"2019-02-13T16:21:51","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T05:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afl.draftcentral.localhost\/?p=44950"},"modified":"2019-02-13T16:23:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T05:23:15","slug":"2019-national-under-18-championships-fixtures-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2019\/02\/13\/2019-national-under-18-championships-fixtures-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 National Under-18 Championships fixtures announced"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE AFL has today released<\/a> the official 2019 National Under-18 Championships fixture, which combines both existing and new elements. The five round competition which sees Vic Metro, Vic Country, South Australia, Western Australia and the Allies – a combined team from Queensland, New South Wales\/Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory and Tasmania – compete for the annual title, features two matches in Western Australia, two in South Australia, one in Tasmania and the traditional five in Victoria.<\/p>\n

As has been the case of recent times, the two Victorian sides will meet in Round 2 when they clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on June 1. The match between the top Victorian Under-18 talents will serve as a curtain raiser to the Collingwood and Fremantle match. Despite being a Round 2 match, the game actually opens the championships, with the Western Australia and South Australian game at Optus Stadium on June 15. Round 1 will take place on the weekend of June 8-9 with Vic Metro travelling to Western Australia, and Vic Country clashing with the Allies in Launceston.<\/p>\n

Round 3 features a double-header at Alberton Oval in South Australia, before all teams reconvene in Victoria for the final two rounds. The five-day break between Round 4 at GMHBA Stadium, Geelong and Round 5 at Marvel Stadium has become a regular feature of the fixture.<\/p>\n

Other matches to feature the top Australian young talent sees the top-agers (eligible for the 2019 National AFL Draft) matching it against Victorian Football League (VFL) side, Casey Demons at the MCG as a curtain raiser to the Melbourne and St Kilda game at the venue. The most talented bottom-age players (eligible for the 2020 National AFL Draft) face the New Zealand Hawks – the country’s senior team.<\/p>\n

In another new feature, Tasmania has become a full-time team in the Victorian Under-18 boys competition (formerly TAC Cup) this year, while the four northern academies (Brisbane, Gold Coast, GWS GIANTS and Sydney) and Northern Territory and NSW\/ACT will compete in the first half of the season as a way of determining the Allies’ squad for the championships.<\/p>\n

NAB AFL Academy fixture<\/h5>\n

Saturday, April 20 \u2013 Australia U18 v Casey Demons, MCG, 1.20pm
\nSaturday, April 27 \u2013 Australia U17 v New Zealand Hawks, Marvel Stadium, 1.20pm<\/p>\n

NAB AFL Under-18 Championships fixture<\/h5>\n

Round 1
\n<\/strong>Saturday, June 8 \u2013 WA v Vic Metro, WAFL venue, 10am
\nSunday, June 9 \u2013 Allies v Vic Country, Launceston, 1.30pm
\n(Bye \u2013 South Australia)<\/p>\n

Round 2
\n<\/strong>Saturday, June 15 \u2013 WA v SA, Optus Stadium, 11am
\nSaturday, June 1 \u2013 Vic Metro v Vic Country, MCG, 11.20am
\n(Bye \u2013 Allies)<\/p>\n

Round 3
\n<\/strong>Saturday, June 22 \u2013 Allies v WA, Alberton Oval, 10.45am
\nSaturday, June 22 \u2013 SA v Vic Metro, Alberton Oval, 1.10pm
\n(Bye \u2013 Vic Country)<\/p>\n

Round 4
\n<\/strong>Friday, June 28 \u2013 Vic Metro v Allies, GMHBA Stadium, 2.10pm
\nFriday, June 28 \u2013 Vic Country v SA, GMHBA Stadium, 4.40pm
\n(Bye \u2013 WA)<\/p>\n

Round 5
\n<\/strong>Wednesday, July 3 \u2013 Vic Country v WA, Marvel Stadium, 2.10pm
\nWednesday, July 3 \u2013 SA v Allies, Marvel Stadium, 4.40pm
\n(Bye \u2013 Vic Metro)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE AFL has today released the official 2019 National Under-18 Championships fixture, which combines both existing and new elements. The five round competition which sees Vic Metro, Vic Country, South Australia, Western Australia and the Allies – a combined team from Queensland, New South Wales\/Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory and Tasmania – compete for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":38359,"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":[17,8],"tags":[24,4854],"class_list":["post-44950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-championships","category-news","tag-afl-academy","tag-under-18-national-championships"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44950","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\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}