Jeparit-Rainbow joined the competition during the summer, giving the league an uneven number of teams for the first time since the end of 2010 when Great Western withdrew.

HDFNL 2015 DRAW

It means one team will have a bye in each week of the season.

The increase in numbers also means it is not possible for every team to play each other twice, as in previous years.

District league chairman Graeme King said teams’ draws would now depend on their results from the previous season.

‘‘In order for everyone to play each other twice, we would have needed to expand to a 20-week season which wasn’t going to work,’’ he said.

‘‘Because not everyone plays each other twice we took a weighted approach to the draw, so last year’s top teams will play each other twice and the bottom sides will only play the top sides once.

‘‘It won’t always work out perfectly, but that’s the way it goes.’’

Mr King said the league had also tried to accommodate as many requests from clubs about specific dates as it could.

Jeparit-Rainbow will be straight into the action in round one, coming up against last season’s preliminary finalist Kalkee at Jeparit on April 11.

Mr King said it would be interesting to see how Jeparit-Rainbow fared in its district league debut.

‘‘It is a bit of a baptism of fire for them I suppose, having to play one of the power sides of the competition,’’ he said.

‘‘They will certainly be keen to make an impression and enthusiastic for their first game in the league.’’

Mr King said the other highlight of the opening round would be a grand final rematch between reigning premier Swifts and Laharum at North Park, Stawell.

He said the round one replay usually resulted in an interesting contest.

‘‘Based on recruiting, Laharum would probably start as the favourite, but then again they were the favourite in the grand final and didn’t win it,’’ he said. 

‘‘You don’t typically hear too much about how Swifts have recruited so it will be interesting to see how they look in round one.’’