The AFL pre-season competition will be played over a record six week period next year with the first round stretching out over three weekends alone.

It is the first time the NAB Cup has ever been played over more than a five week period with the competition beginning on February 7 and not ending until March 14.

And following poor crowds in Adelaide for the final in two of the past three years, the AFL will no longer allow the showpiece game of the competition to be hosted by the team that scores the most goals during the first three knockout rounds.

But rather the AFL will now decide where the final will be played in order to ensure the biggest possible crowd - given that some recent finals played in Adelaide (under the most goals rule) would have attracted a far bigger crowd had they been played in Melbourne.

Last year's final between Adelaide and St Kilda at AAMI Stadium attracted just 26,823 fans while the 2006 final - also played at AAMI Stadium between the Crows and Geelong - attracted a crowd of only 30,707 at a stadium that holds more than 50,000 fans.

In contrast in 2006 when Carlton beat Brisbane at Telstra Dome in Melbourne, the game attracted a crowd of more than 46,000 fans despite the presence of a non-Victorian club in the final with the 2004 final - the last time two Victorian sides played off - attracting a crowd of more than 50,000.

The 2009 NAB Cup will kick off with a game in South Africa between Collingwood and West Coast at Cape Town on Saturday February 7 with three more first round games to be played the following weekend and the remaining four on the weekend after that.

AFL media manager Patrick Keane told Sportal on Thursday afternoon there were two reasons why the league had decided to spread next year's tournament out over a longer period.

"We stretched it out deliberately for two reasons," he said.

"Firstly to try and avoid day games in round one and to increase the number of prime time broadcast slots for people watching."

In week two all three first round games will be played at night with the Western Bulldogs playing Essendon in Darwin on Friday night, Brisbane hosting St Kilda at Carrara on Saturday night and Fremantle playing Richmond at Subiaco on Sunday night.

The four remaining first round games will then be played