NORTH Melbourne has been allocated the regional northern corridor of Victoria as part of its Next Generation Academy zone after the League confirmed with clubs their new regions.

The Roos had held Tasmania as a NGA region since its NGA's inception in 2016, but the arrival of the Tasmania Devils has been the catalyst for the League's long and thorough process to redesign its zones, particularly in Victoria.

It has seen North take up some of Richmond's previous zoning in the Bendigo Pioneers area as well as straddling some of the Murray Bushrangers' zone, with Carlton also taking up a large portion of the Tigers' zone in the north-east Victorian area, which fills the Murray Bushrangers Coates Talent League catchment.

The Roos will continue to hold inner North Melbourne and the Wyndham region, but have given back the suburb of Carlton, which will now be in the Blues' zone.

The reallocation of North Melbourne's region is the most significant aspect of the wide-ranging redistribution of zones, which balanced the addition of one more club in Victoria alongside updated criteria and weightings, club requests, having each club hold a metropolitan and regional or remote region, club heartland areas, serviceability of zones, infrastructure, the under 15 population in areas and the alignment to SA2 level (a bureau of statistics measurement). The full breakdown of each club's NGA regions is below.

Under other significant changes to zones, Melbourne has lost the Mornington Peninsula, which has been reallocated to St Kilda, while Hawthorn will no longer have a presence in the Northern Territory after losing that part as well as some of its eastern Melbourne region, which has been taken on by Richmond.

Collingwood has gained the north-east metropolitan area of Victoria, which will encompass the Yarra Junior Football League region, while Geelong has been allocated Western Victoria, which had been in the hands of the Western Bulldogs.

Under this region, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, who was the No.1 pick in 2020 after coming from the Warrnambool area and being tied to the Western Bulldogs' NGA, would have been eligible to Geelong under the new zones.

The West Australian zones for West Coast and Fremantle have remained unchanged, while the existing South Australian zones for Adelaide and Port Adelaide will continue to be allocated as well as proposed additions for large areas that haven't been previously been designated to clubs.

The League has proposed that towns within a large zone – such as Cooper Pedy, Woomera, Roxby Downs –  will be in Port's zone and the APY Lands (in the north-west part of the state) be fully zoned to Adelaide.

Under the changes, Darwin will be unallocated to any club as a NGA zone.

The AFL's football operations team crunched the population data across the country before deciding on the new zones, with a 'score' being determined based on multicultural and Indigenous population within the region, as well as multicultural and Indigenous participation and current participation.

The transition to the new zones will commence in 2028, meaning clubs who have draftees in their region who are now in a new region will be eligible to join their original club in the 2026 and 2027 drafts, but will change over zones if they are three or more years away from draft age.

Tasmania, however, will have access to Tasmanian talents from 2027, with North Melbourne retaining access to players in the state through to the end of 2026.

The changes in zones will see some promising under-15s talents be switched from one club to another after the redistribution of areas.

AFL.com.au revealed in September that the AFL had made significant changes to its NGA eligibility rules as well, including removing the criteria that allowed a player to be tied to a club if they were born overseas in the relevant zone, the removal of European countries as multicultural access and an expansion of age eligibility from 19 to 21 years to give clubs more access to late developers in their Academies.

Those changes will also see some players ruled out of club NGAs, including promising youngster Tom Steinfort at Geelong, who is the son of former player Carl Steinfort. He was going to be eligible to be in the Cats' NGA given he was born in Finland, but the change to European zones means he will not be eligible for Geelong after review.

WHICH NEXT GENERATION ACADEMY ZONES YOUR CLUB NOW HOLDS?

* The Next Generation Academy program is a joint initiative between the AFL and its clubs to increase participation numbers among Indigenous Australians and those with multicultural backgrounds. Fourteen clubs (excluding those in NSW and Queensland, who instead of NGAs have special access to talent through their northern academies) are allocated a region in Australia to implement their NGA program, which aims to increase participation for those with a diverse background, who have traditionally been under-represented in the game. Clubs are rewarded for their investment by getting priority access to talented players from their NGAs when they are ready for AFL/AFLW level.