Welcome to the 2011 NAB Cup.

Sit back and enjoy the show for the next five weeks because this might well be the end of the pre-season competition as we have come to know it.

Not pre-season football, because the clubs need a few games under their belt in order to get the requisite match practice ahead of the new season.

But with this being the last year of the existing TV contract, there is no contractual requirement for there to be a NAB/Wizard/Foster's/National Panasonic/Insert Sponsor's Name Here Cup from 2012. The new AFL broadcasting agreement will specify a number of games for each broadcaster and the league will determine the split accordingly.

The league must first decide how many home and away rounds to play in an 18-team competition, and then the composition of its finals series before turning its mind to the structure of its pre-season competition.

That the NAB Cup is on its last legs is evidenced by the round-robin format introduced by the AFL to squeeze 18 teams into a four-round, knock-out format. Three teams need to share Etihad Stadium on Saturday night - Carlton, Collingwood and Richmond - with the Tigers drawing the short straw. They're changing in a former gymnasium located in the stadium car park, and their coaches box will be a converted corporate box, reportedly situated behind the goals.

Perhaps as a result, the Tigers are not taking their two matches all that seriously. They're only a developing side, the Tigers, yet among those missing will be Nathan Foley, Trent Cotchin, Brett Deledio, Daniel Jackson, Dustin Martin, Jack Riewoldt and Chris Newman.

Hawthorn flies to Perth on Sunday evening to face Fremantle and West Coast without up to 18 players from its best side. Cyril Rioli, Shaun Burgoyne and Ben Stratton must be asking what it is they did wrong to be asked to make the trip.

As usual, the league is using the NAB Cup as some sort of science lab for the new rules its plans to bring into place. There are five rules being trialled, including the sensible (boundary umpires being able to award free kicks for too high and holding the man), the potentially game-changing (video replays to help goal umpires adjudicate) and the bizarre (free kick against the last player to touch the ball before it goes out of bounds).

As for the possible winner, who knows? And who really cares? It's really all about game time under real match conditions for young players and those returning from injury. The Bulldogs broke through and won it last year and a fat lot of good it did them come the regular finals. They were well short of Collingwood and St Kilda when it really mattered.

But it's footy, and after a dreadful cricket season and flat summer of tennis, it is always good to have the football back. It might still be summer and the cicadas are chirping away, but with the NAB Cup, NRL's All Star Game and the Super 15s all in play, we'll be watching intently.