REIGNING VFL premiers North Ballarat faces a road trip to the west for its opening round match in the inaugural Foxtel Cup.
North Ballarat meets East Perth at Patersons Stadium, Subiaco, on Saturday, April 2 in the knock out competition that has drawn some of the best State League clubs from all around Australia.
The Roosters must defeat East Perth, which made the Preliminary Final of the West Australian Football League last year, to advance to the Foxtel Cup’s quarter finals.
Williamstown faces even a tougher task – confronting WAFL premiers Swan Districts – in its first round match and making the assignment even tougher, the Seagulls must travel to West Australia for its April 9 match.
The Seagulls also play Swan Districts at Patersons Stadium.
Northern Bullants, runner-up in the past two VFL Grand Finals and the other VFL club involved in the inaugural Foxtel Cup, faces Greater Western Sydney Giants at the MCG in its first match on April 30.
Other clubs involved in the Foxtel Cup are Morningside (Queensland), NT Thunder (Northern Territory), West Adelaide (South Australia), Ainslie (ACT), Clarence (Tasmania), Claremont (West Australia), East Coast Eagles (NSW), Port Adelaide (South Australia), Labrador (Queensland) and North Adelaide (South Australia).
AFL Victoria Acting Chief Executive Officer Mick Daniher welcomed the opportunity for the three VFL clubs to showcase the quality of football on display each and every weekend in Victoria.
Daniher said North Ballarat, Northern Bullants and Williamstown were professionally run clubs who would acquit Victoria well in the Foxtel Cup.
He noted that many of the players from the three VFL clubs had represented the VFL in last season’s State representative match success against West Australia.
“I’m sure we will see that Victorian football will be well represented and all three will be keen to win the first Foxtel Cup,” Daniher said.
Only winning clubs advance to the next round.
Venues for the quarter finals and subsequent semi finals and Foxtel Cup Grand Final have not yet been decided.
The quarter finals will be played between May 28-June 18 with the semi-final matches to be played over the weekends of July 9 and July 16.
The Foxtel Cup will be decided on Saturday, August 6.
All three VFL clubs games in the first round will be played as curtain raisers to AFL games and the games will be broadcast on Fox Sports during a two hour time slot in the late afternoon, early evening.
One of the features of the Foxtel Cup is that each quarter will be 18 minutes with time on only applicable to the final three minutes of the quarter.
The over-riding decision to limit the game time to about 20 minutes per quarter is to ensure that it does not overly impact on club commitments in their on-going state league season, as well as to enable games to fit into a two-hour broadcast window.
AFL General Manager National and International Development David Matthews said the Foxtel Cup would showcase the quality of state league football across the country.
Mr Matthews said the partnership with FOX SPORTS and major sponsor FOXTEL would provide valuable exposure for state league clubs and their playing standards, as well as enabling players with aspirations to play at AFL level to showcase their talents.
Last Modified on 25/02/2011 09:45