The Talent League seasons will kick off in late March.
The boys season will kick off on the weekend of 21 March and the girls season the following weekend.
Round of the boys competition feature six matches featuring the competition’s full-time programs, with the northern academy teams will begin competing from round two.
The Calder Cannons and Western Jets will play in round one, while the Northern Knights facing the Oakleigh Chargers.
The final home and away round for the boys will be played the weekend of 22 August.
Wildcard round will be played the weekend of 29 August, ahead of a three-week knockout finals series which will culminate with the grand final the weekend of 19 September.
The girls season will commence with two matches featuring northern academy clubs on the weekend of 28 March.
All 12 Victorian-based teams will start their campaign in round two on the weekend of 11 April, with Easter weekend between round one and two.
The Cannons will start their season against the Sandringham Dragons, and the Knights and Jets will face each other.
The girls season will consist of 21 rounds, with finals starting the weekend of 29 August and the grand final to be played the same weekend as the boys.
The home and away fixtures again includes several community access periods.
The community access breaks provide opportunities for players to study and compete in community, school and representative football.
The Talent League is the premier underage football pathway competition for boys and girls in the eastern states of Australia, with teams comprised mostly of under-18 players.
Both boys and girls competitions feature 12 full-time programs from Victoria, along with the Tasmania Devils.
Academy programs from New South Wales (GWS GIANTS and Sydney Swans), Queensland (Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast SUNS) and Northern Territory (NT Academy) will continue to compete in a selection of games in the first half of the season.
The 2026 campaign will for the first time feature the Bachar Houli Foundation’s National Senior Boys Academy, who will play two matches during the Talent League Boys season.
The academy features promising Islamic footballers aged 18 years and younger and has produced three AFL players across the past two years in Essendon pair Saad El-Hawli and Hussien El Achkar, along with Fremantle’s Adem Sweid.
