The AFL has announced significant changes to its regular season, including a second bye and return of some form of representative football beginning in 2014.

The AFL season will stay at 22 games, with the pre-season cut to two matches per club.

“In place of the pre-season cup grand final, the AFL is currently considering options for a representative-style game in the final week of the pre-season, together with intra-club matches for all teams, before round one gets underway,” the league said in a statement.

The AFL Commission has also approved a system to determine which opponents each team plays twice during a season.

Each team has five return games during the season and where they finish on the ladder will help decide those opponents.

“The weighting of second-time match-ups for clubs enables the AFL to better deal with the key requirement of equality, as well as continuing to ensure that our venue obligations and our broadcast obligations can be met,” said AFL scheduling manager Simon Lethlean.