The Australian Football League's national U18 program "is facing a revamp, with next year's championships likely to have a home and away series played between the four division-one states," according to Emma Quayle of THE AGE. The league "will brief list and football managers about its plans for the revised format at a meeting before Wednesday's first-division finals." Under the proposed format the four junior sides -- Vic Metro, Vic Country, South Australia and Western Australia -- play each other once in a ''home'' game, and again on the road. The change "would have implications for the second-division competition between Queensland, NSW-ACT, the Northern Territory and Tasmania, with the 'crossover' games now played between first and second division sides at the start of the championships likely to be scrapped." Meanwhile, the AIS-AFL Academy "will be renamed in the middle of next year, after an Australian Institute of Sport decision to no longer attach its name to the 16-year program." The academy "will continue to receive the same funding, through the Australian Sports Commission, but it will have a new name" -- possibly the AFL National Academy -- with the league likely to seek more corporate support for the program (THE AGE, 7/2).
