| Upcoming season or competition: 2012 Foxtel Cup |
|
| Sport | Australian rules football |
|---|---|
| Inaugural season | 2011 |
| No. of teams | 16 |
| Country(ies) | Australia |
| Most recent champion(s) | Williamstown |
| Most titles | Williamstown (1) |
| Qualification | Invitation |
| TV partner(s) | Fox Sports |
| Official website | Official Foxtel Cup website |
The League Championship Cup[1] (officially branded under the sponsor's name – the Foxtel Cup[2]) is an Australian rules football club knockout cup competition involving clubs from the various state league competitions from around Australia – plus the AFL's newest expansion side Greater Western Sydney Giants.
Its purpose is to support and promote the second-tier Australian rules football competitions and to provide another way of developing the lower-tier AFL players. The tournament is being organised by the Australian Football League (AFL).
The competition began on 26 March 2011 and ran through to August. Matches are played as curtain-raisers to AFL Saturday night games and are screened on Fox Sports in a late-afternoon slot between afternoon and night AFL matches.[3] Prizemoney for the competition is about $250,000, with $40,000 going to the winner.[4]
Clubs are required to play during byes in their respective state league fixture, effectively meaning they forfeit their weeks off. The AFL and Foxtel cover the travel costs of clubs but offer little prizemoney or payments for players.
The AFL originally invited the three highest ranked teams from the South Australian National Football League, the Victorian Football League and the West Australian Football League; the top two teams from the Queensland Australian Football League; and the top team from AFL Sydney and the Tasmanian Football League. The Northern Territory Football Club and Greater Western Sydney Football Club received special invitations.[5][6]
However, despite the SANFL on 9 December 2010 signing on to be part of the Cup competition, opposition to the proposal came from its top three clubs Central District, Norwood and Woodville-West Torrens. The three clubs were given until 14 December 2010 to reconsider with the SANFL willing to extend invitations to its next best teams from 2010 if its top three clubs refused to participate.[7] After the top five SANFL clubs released a joint statement on 15 December 2010 declining the invitation to participate in the Cup competition, citing lack of prizemoney, sponsorship conflicts, salary cap implications, schedule concerns and removing the focus from their SANFL premiership ambitions,[8] their places were taken up by fellow SANFL clubs West Adelaide, North Adelaide and Port Adelaide Magpies.[9]
The AFL gave the Cup competition the go ahead on 17 December 2010[10] with the fixture[11][12] released publicly. The official name of the tournament – Foxtel Cup, finalised fixture and participating teams were formalised on 9 February 2011 by the AFL.[2]
The AFL announced on 1 August 2011 that public interest and television audiences well-supported the inaugural year of the Foxtel Cup and as a result the competition would continue for the next five years.[13]
Williamstown became the inaugural Foxtel Cup champions when they defeated Claremont by 21 points in the Grand Final at Patersons Stadium on 6 August 2011. Williamstown midfielder Ben Jolley won the Coles Medal as best afield for his game-high 30 possessions and eight clearances.[14]
Contents |
| GF (AFL Rd 20) 6 August 2011 3:05 pm WST[15] |
Claremont | 38–59 stand alone game
|
Williamstown | Patersons Stadium, Perth | |
| 1.2 (8) 2.2 (14) 5.5 (35) 5.8 (38) |
match report | 2.1 (13) 4.3 (27) 6.4 (40) 9.5 (59) |
Attendance: 1,405 |
||
| Goals | |||||
| Beau Wilkes 2, Jack Bradshaw, Chad Jones, Gerrick Weedon |
Nathan Djerrkura 2, Christian Howard 2, Jordan Roughead 2, Ed Barlow, Andrew Hooper, Jason Tutt |
||||
| Bests | |||||
| Kane Mitchell, Andrew Foster, Gerrick Weedon, Brett Jones Lewis Stevenson, Thomas Swift |
Ben Jolley, Jordan Roughead, Mitch Wallis, Christian Howard, Nathan Djerrkura 2, Matthew Panos |
| Adelaide | Adelaide | Blacktown | Darwin |
|---|---|---|---|
| AAMI Stadium Capacity: 51,224 |
Adelaide Oval Capacity: 36,000 |
Blacktown International Sportspark Sydney Capacity: 10,000 |
TIO Stadium Capacity: 15,000 |
| Gold Coast | Hobart | Launceston | Melbourne |
| Metricon Stadium Capacity: 25,000 |
Bellerive Oval Capacity: 16,200 |
Aurora Stadium Capacity: 20,000 |
Etihad Stadium Capacity: 56,347 |
| Melbourne | Perth | Sydney | |
| Melbourne Cricket Ground Capacity: 100,018 |
Patersons Stadium Capacity: 43,500 |
Sydney Cricket Ground Capacity: 46,000 |
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