World Footy News

The Foxtel Cup is proving to be one-sided so far. The series was created to provide pay TV station Foxtel more Australian football games whilst giving the respective top Australian state league clubs a chance to compete against each other. The knockout tournament's reputation suffered a dent before getting started with state league powerhouse the SANFL agreeing to join but its top sides declining the offer, with only the lower teams agreeing, and even then confirming that they would mostly field development sides - one could imagine some of the other clubs will do likewise (North Ballarat's 2 point loss not helped by a similar policy). However it still is interesting to see the different cross-league clubs competing.

The tournament is now well underway, with matches played as curtain-raisers to AFL games. Eight clubs from 7 states and territories are competing, with the first round featuring 8 games spread across March, April and May. Five matches have been decided so far, with:

Northern Territory Thunder (NT) defeated Morningside (QLD) by 15 points
East Perth (WA) defeated North Ballarat (VIC) by 2 points
Williamstown (VIC) defeated Swan Districts (WA) by 37 points
West Adelaide (SA) defeated Ainslie (ACT) by 77 points
Claremont (WA) defeated Clarence (TAS) by 71 points

Remaining round 1 games:

Northern Bullants (VIC, VFL Runners-Up 2010) versus GWS Giants (NSW, AFL expansion club 2012)
East Coast Eagles (NSW, Sydney AFL Premiers 2010) versus Port Adelaide Magpies (SA, SANFL 8th place 2010)
Labrador (QLD, QAFL Runners-Up 2010) versus North Adelaide (SA, SANFL 7th place 2010)


So far matches have confirmed the status quo, with the clubs from the WA, SA and Victoria state leagues far stronger than those from QLD, NT, Tasmania, NSW and ACT.