Rebels talent manager Phil Partington said the changes came after a winter without football due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The competition has moved to an under-17 and under-19 model in 2021, giving those players who missed out on their top-age draft year another chance to impress AFL recruiters.

He said smaller training lists and final squads meant hard decisions.

IN OTHER NEWS: Planning permit approved for $4.85m project

"We've cast a larger net over our region to look for that diamond in the rough (in the past) whereas now we've gone for quality over quantity for financial reasons and also COVID and the restructure of the AFL," Partington said.

"There will be disappointed players out there."

Partington said players would jump into pre-season training after a season off.

"We can bring in the boys that made the 2020 final squads, so there's about 45 players there," he said.

"We can invite the boys who made our final under 17 squads which is about 28 and the boys' under 17 rookies too. We'll have about 93 players invited in across the whole region.

"In the past we've invited between 130 and 120 players in the under 18s and 120 players for the under 16s."

MAKING NEWS IN SPORT:

Partington said the Rebels would run a 'Super Sunday' training session at Mars Stadium in Ballarat before moving to regional bases as pre-season hits full swing.

"We go to our traditional training centres as of next Monday, so we'll have Warrnambool and we'll also have Horsham," he said.

"We have closed down, due to the COVID and the restructure, our South West training base in Hamilton.

"Those players are caught between two areas so they can either go to Horsham or Warrnambool.

"Our preference is for them to go to the Warrnambool training base because a lot of those players play in the Hampden league."

Did you know you can receive updates straight to your inbox? To make sure you're up-to-date with news from across the region, sign up below.