Adelaide will have pre-season hit-outs against Port Adelaide and Carlton as part of the AFL’s new ‘18 games in 18 days’ NAB Challenge format.

The Crows will kick off their pre-season campaign against Port Adelaide at Richmond Oval on Sunday, February 16. The twilight match will start at 4:10pm.

Adelaide will then head to Melbourne to play Carlton in a Monday night fixture on February, 24. The game will start at 7:10pm (local time).

Geelong and Collingwood will launch the new NAB Challenge concept, with a clash under lights at Simonds Stadium on Wednesday, February 12.

The clash between the two 2013 finalists will kick off the fixture, which will see every club play two games across a mixture of AFL and non-AFL venues.

Every match will be televised live on Foxtel at a range of starting times from late afternoon to early evening.

There is an average of a nine-day break between games for each club, but the Cats have 16 days between their games, and Melbourne 14. Gold Coast and North Melbourne have the shortest breaks with just six days, but both clubs are finished with their games early.

The home-and-away season will start on Friday, March 14, with Collingwood to play Fremantle at Etihad Stadium.