Ordinarily a low-fanfare competition that exists purely as a bridge between the Sheffield Shield and grade cricket, the tournament reached its peak of public consciousness ahead of the 2009–10 season, when it rebranded to the Futures League.
[2] League champions were previously calculated based on a points quotient that accounted for the varying numbers of matches that each team may play in a season.
[7][8] Beginning in the 2011–12 season, the Futures League returned to four-day matches with no over restrictions and increased the amount of overage players per team to six.
[9] However, the age restrictions remained controversial, with West Australian all-rounder Theo Doropoulous describing the league as a "glorified juniors competition" in a July 2013 Tumblr post.
[13] This continued in the 2019–20 season, leading to a situation where although Western Australia won the most total matches for the year, they finished second in the overall standings due to T20 results carrying less weight.
[14] Following a year's break in competition due to the COVID-19 pandemic preventing play, the Second XI resumed in the 2021–22 season without official points tables, meaning that champions are no longer awarded.