IT’S ALL been building up to this.

The 2025 NAB AFLW season kicks off tonight with a classic match-up paying tribute to the competition’s very first game.

Carlton and Collingwood will take to Ikon Park boasting line-ups of new and returning faces.

Draftees such as the Blues’ Sophie McKay and Poppy Scholz will continue family legacies, while the Pies’ Ash Centra will make her hotly anticipated debut after being selected with the prized no.1 draft pick back in December.

Inaugural Blue Darcy Vescio will run out in the navy blue for their 10th season, while Magpies stalwarts Ruby Schleicher and Brit Bonnici will once again wear the black and white with pride.

Pie who could ‘break the game open’, Blues’ family affair

The Collingwood forward who could solve Pies’ forward woes, young Blue’s 10-season connection to historic first game

Once the action in Melbourne has wrapped up, all focus shifts to the west where West Coast and Gold Coast face off in the second game of the evening.

It’s Daisy Pearce’s second year at the helm of an Eagles side bursting with young talent, and there’s plenty of intrigue as to what she can achieve in 2025.

The Suns boast perhaps the most intriguing off-season addition with the acquisition of Academy product Havana Harris, who at 182cm tall can play as a ruck, forward or midfielder.

Don’t miss a moment of the action when it kicks off from 7.15pm AEST before the second game at 9.15pm AEST.

Both matches can be watched live on the Seven Network and Fox Footy.

Weather watch: Why the Eagles-Suns clash was moved

Sarah Black with an update on a couple of venues across the comp and how the surface issues have changed the fixture