The grand final curtain-raiser will take on added significance this year, as clubs prepare for the introduction of future trading and the new draft-night bidding system.
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Recruiters will take their final look at a number of northern academy players available at this year's draft in the game between the Allies and AFL Academy.
They will also have the opportunity to form some deeper thoughts on the academy players – eligible for the 2016 draft – which could prove useful come this month's trade period.
While Jacob Hopper and Ben Keays have withdrawn from the game, likely first-round picks Matthew Kennedy, Callum Mills and Eric Hipwood will line up for the Allies.
Mills is set to follow Isaac Heeney to Sydney as a Swans academy player, while Hopper and Kennedy are bound for the Giants, also as academy selections.
Both Mills and Kennedy missed a large chunk of this season through injury, but both have proven themselves as potential top-five bids, as has Hopper.
If clubs inside the Giants' first selection – placed currently at No.8 – don't bid for either Kennedy or Hopper, the club will be able to draft another highly rated player.
Midfielder Keays and key position prospect Hipwood have impressed this year, with both players on their probable way to Brisbane as Lions academy players.
Carlton will not bid for either player, meaning the Lions will be able to take a player – Josh Schache or Jacob Weitering – at No.2 before starting to match bids for their players.
A number of other academy players will also play for the Allies, comprised of players from New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania.
Corey Wagner and Mabior Chol, nominated by the Lions this week as potential selections, are both expected to play.
Giants nominees Harrison Himmelberg, Matthew Flynn, Jock Cornell, Nick Coughlan and Lachlan Tiziani are also set to line-up against the Academy side.
The Academy players will be draft eligible next year, a draft that clubs will have the chance to trade in or out of under the incoming future trading rules.
The match, which starts at 10am, will be recruiters' last look at the 2016 crop before deciding what value to place on any future picks they wish to bring in or are happy to move out. Twelve members of the Allies side that played in the first match last year went on to be drafted in November, including No.10 pick Nakia Cockatoo, who starred in his return from injury.
Heeney, Lachie Weller (Fremantle), Liam Dawson (Brisbane) and Jack Steele (GWS) also played, with Dougal Howard (Port Adelaide) kicking three goals.
