The Kangaroos look certain to host at least one pre-season clash, in the newly named JLT Community Series, after the AFL struck a three-year deal with its insurance broker JLT Sport.

The return to North's traditional home follows the resurrection in recent years of the Whitten Oval and Carlton's Ikon Park, which will also host pre-season games next year.

And the launch of the AFL Women's competition fixture will follow on Thursday with traditional rivals Carlton and Collingwood expected to feature in the historic opening game at the Holden Centre in early February.

Although the women's TV schedule has not been finalised, Channel Seven's bid for exclusive Saturday night games is set to be thwarted, with Fox set  to simulcast every game with the exception of the women's Grand Final.

The AFL was still debating a new moniker for the ever-changing pre-season men's series most recently known as the NAB Challenge. Although the round-robin format will not differ from the 2016 structure with no grand final the word challenge has been removed as a nod to the new sponsor JLT which has been an AFL partner - but never a sponsor - for more than a decade.

With the league set to schedule key double headers involving AFL Women's and the men's practice games the women's Grand Final fixture remains unresolved and could hinge on the contenders.

A strong push by Carlton to run the women's Grand Final as an MCG curtain-raiser to the Blues' season-opener against Richmond has failed, with the league set to schedule the game for the Saturday afternoon of round one, and almost certainly at the MCG.

The women's preference was the to stage the game as a standalone game. Should two non-Victorian teams reach the Grand Final, the match could be moved interstate.

The AFL Women's will also unveil Chemist Warehouse as a new key sponsor this week - the fledgling competition's third protected partner along with NAB and Cotton On.

With NAB switching to the AFLW the competition bosses have been working furiously to sign a new backer for the pre-season games many of which will run concurrently with the new eight-team women's league to be launched in early February.

The delay has held up the release of the women's schedule - a source of some frustration to that competition's organisers. The AFL clubs have known their pre-season fixtures for some weeks. The practice game series has lost significant momentum since the AFL re-designed it removing the pre-season grand final.

The recent focus on community football, along with the fact that JLT is also now the insurer of all Australian Rules community football led to the competition's new title.

JLT Sport is a division of the international insurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson and describes itself as providing sport insurance, risk solutions and risk management. The risk insurers for the AFL and the 18 clubs along with Cricket Australia and the national swimming, hockey and harness racing bodies it has chosen to move into AFL sponsorship in a move reflecting the growing competitiveness of the insurance market.

In an ironic twist given the new pre-season sponsor's core business, the 2017 competition has been clouded with speculation of a player boycott as the AFL and the players' union remain locked in battle over the players' new pay claim.

League bosses have cancelled scheduled talks with the AFL Players Association and PA boss Paul Marsh has not removed the option of a strike from the negotiating table. At least two AFL clubs at the start of the season confirmed they had put forward a risk assessment analysis in the event of industrial action.