World Footy News

Round 1 of the Foxtel Cup, a designed for TV competition between the top Australian state league teams, has completed with no real surprises.

The knock-out matches are played as curtain-raisers to AFL games. 16 clubs from 7 states and territories are competing, with the first round featuring 8 games spread across March, April and May. The results from Round 1:

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
Northern Bullants (VIC) defeated GWS Giants (NSW) by 89 points
Port Adelaide Magpies (SA) defeated East Coast Eagles (NSW) by 92 points
North Adelaide (SA) defeated Labrador (QLD) by 85 points

Teams from the stronger three state leagues are winning their matches by 70 to 100 points. Even Port Magpies, 8th in 2010 in the SANFL and currently 7th, demolished the Sydney AFL's 2010 premiers (currently 2nd) East Coast, holding them to just two goals - Port then lost by an even 100 points to Norwood underlining their poor season. And North Adelaide, SANFL cellar dwellers in 2011 with just one win so far, belted Queensland's Labrador by 85 points - perhaps a surprising result since Queensland footy has been steadily improving in recent years.

The blow outs are interesting when considering the difference between nations at the International Cup - the gap between teams about 10 positions apart is often about 100 points, which seems quite extreme, yet that's the kind of difference we see in the Foxtel Cup. So an often made point remains true - Australian football is such an attacking game that when teams are separated by more than a little ability there really is no reasonable way to stop the damage on the scoreboard.

Eight sides remain, and the next round of games:

Saturday May 28 – NT Thunder v East Perth at TIO Stadium, 5.15pm local time.

Saturday June 4 – West Adelaide v Williamstown at AAMI Stadium, 4.45pm local time or City Mazda Stadium, 3.05pm local time.

Saturday June 11 – Claremont v Northern Bullants at Metricon Stadium, 4.05pm local time.

Saturday June 18 – Port Adelaide v North Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, 4.35pm local time.