The tournament will take on a different look with a new timeslot and venue as organisers tried to make the carnival more accessible for footballers.

Gumly Oval will play host to the football and netball carnival, while it has been brought forward a couple of weeks to avoid a clash with pre-season trial games.

The football will see two teams from Narrandera compete, along with one from Wagga, ACT-South Coast and the Allies, a predominantly Sydney-based side.

Defending champions Albury will be missing, while regular visitors, Rumbalara are also unable to compete this year.

Carnival organiser Andrew Craig expects Narrandera to be the team to beat this year.

“Albury usually are but unfortunately they couldn’t bring a team this year,” Craig said.

“Narrandera will be quite strong. South Coast-ACT will have a couple of good young footy players running around as well.”

Craig said there were key reasons behind the changes to the carnival.

“We’ve got a new location and brought it forward,” he said.

“The feedback from the community was that it needs to be on earlier in the year to fit it in around trials and club’s pre-seasons.”

Maher Oval was already booked, which led to the move to Gumly.

Organisation of the Wagga team has been led by Stephen Smith, Eddie Whyman and Michael Vincent.

Games begin at 9.30am.