The upcoming 2024 Australian Junior Ice Hockey League (AJIHL) season has been shortened to a single round tournament to be held from 15 August to 18 August 2024 at iceHQ in Reservoir, Victoria. The season was initially set to held between April and July and include 18 regular games, followed by a four game playoffs series. This is the second time the AJIHL has made major changes to its season format. The 2022–23 season was similarly shortened with its planned three round regular season reduced to a single round.
Player selection for the competition is expected to be announced in mid-April though players won’t be drafted to a specific team until the conclusion of the drills and training sessions scheduled for 15 and 16 August. The number of teams will remain at four though it is currently unclear if the league will retain the existing team names from last season or create all new teams.
Revised schedule
15 August
- 16:00: Drills and training
16 August
- 09:15: Drills and training
- 15:00: Game 1
- 17:15: Game 2
17 August
- 06:00: Game 3
- 08:15: Game 4
- 16:15: Game 5
- 18:30: Game 6
18 August
- 07:30: Game 7 (playoffs)
- 09:45: Game 8 (playoffs)
Further information
- Australian Junior Ice Hockey League announcement
- AJIHL Announce New Structure by Andrew Macdougall (Hockey Hype Australia, 29 March 2024)
- Complete season schedule (updated)
- League statistics on eSportsdesk
What happened to this ?
All assumptions but possible the overlap with national championships and the AIHL led complaints or availability/sign-up issues. It definitely would have impacted some AIHL rosters if players were meant to prioritise their AJIHL club if a conflict arose.
so it’s dead in the water ?
I think it will still go ahead, just as a single weekend tournament instead of a multi round regular season. It’s a bit of a shame to see how the league’s structure has degraded over time. Hopefully it can get back more of a traditional league in a season or two
They will need to let people know the player list soon.. flights will get too expensive to come back from nth America the longer they leave it .