11kgm
Brownlow Medallist
- Sep 24, 2014
- 21,974
- 20,168
- AFL Club
- Essendon
- Other Teams
- Man Utd
- The competition will revert to a 44-game season (40 home-and-away matches plus four finals) in KFC BBL|13 and future seasons, 12 months in advance of CA's extended seven-year broadcast deal with the Foxtel Group and Seven West Media that runs from 2024 to the end of the 2030-31 summer.
- The reduced BBL season will include a new four-match finals series featuring the top four clubs (down from five matches and teams in BBL|09-BBL|12), with the finals structure to be confirmed closer to the season.
- Also new this season will be the ability for clubs to trade draft picks, with the order again to be confirmed via a lottery ahead of the BBL|13 and inaugural WBBL draft expected to be held in September.
- Clubs will still be required to have at least one selection in each round of the draft, but potential trades could include two clubs trading picks across more than one round where both teams would move up the order in one round but down in the other.
This could be beneficial for a club with a later selection in the first round who wants to move up in the second round – for example, Team A (having picked seventh overall) trades picks 15 and 18 to Team B (who had the second overall pick) in exchange for picks 10 and 23, meaning Team A moves up in the second round but down in the following third round Another potential exchange could involve trading picks in the same round but including players – for example, Team C trades a domestic player and their first round pick to Team D in exchange for an earlier first round pick. - In another first, the league will introduce a week-long retention window for both the BBL and WBBL competitions where clubs will get first rights at re-signing no more than 12 men's and 10 women's players. This includes players already on multi-year deals but excludes overseas and local replacement players. This year's retention window will begin at 9am on May 15 and will end with the lifting of the contracting embargo and beginning of the trade period on May 22.