| Wizard Cup |
Website Links For Cup |
Information AboutWizard Cup |
|
The NAB Cup is the pre-season/night series Australian Rules Football competition of the Australian Football League , sponsored by National Australia Bank . It is run for four weeks before the start of the regular premiership season, involving all sixteen clubs in a knockout competition with the Grand Final played at night. HISTORY Naming Rights
The cup was known as the Foster's Cup until 1995, and Ansett Australia won the rights to own the Cup. Wizard Home Loans owned the naming rights to the event from 2002 (when Ansett Australia folded) through 2005 . The event was known formally as the ''Wizard Home Loans Cup'', and popularly as the ''Wizard Cup''. National Australia Bank took over naming rights for the tournament for 2006 through 2010, renaming it ''The NAB Cup''. Competition The competition was run from 1956 to 1971 as the Night Premiership at the Lake Oval , Albert Park , then the home ground of South Melbourne . It wasn't played between 1972 and 1976, before being revived in 1977 at Waverley Park . Up until 1988, the competition was played during the middle of the year, and often involved interstate teams as well as those from the then VFL . Since 1988, it has been run before the regular season as a series of warmup matches, usually in a knockout format. Prize Money In 2006, Australian Dollar 220,000 will be awarded to the winning club (by comparison, the prizemoney for the winner of the AFL Grand Final in 2005 was only nominally larger at $250,000). Smaller amounts are awarded to clubs based on participation and progression through the competition. Runner-up: $110,000 Losing semi-finalists: $55,000 Week 2 losers: $27,000 Week 1 losers: $16,500 Total prize money on offer: $682,000 ATTENDANCES Although many clubs and coaches (especially the wealthier clubs) do not take the pre-season competition seriously and use the competition as a chance to test young and inexperienced players, the NAB Cup format has proven quite popular with spectators. REGIONAL CHALLENGE Since 2003, the AFL has run a series of pre-season practice matches called the ''Regional Challenge'' for clubs that are eliminated from the NAB Cup. The dual aim of the series is to bring the game to fans in remote areas and to provide the eliminated teams with match fitness. Although the games are informal and there is no actual winner or prize, they have attracted a large amount of interest in regional areas and grown in popularity. In 2005, Regional Challenge matches were played at venues such as: Port Lincoln , South Australia ; Joondalup , Western Australia ; Carrara , Queensland ; Alice Springs , Northern Territory ; Lavington and Newcastle in New South Wales and Bendigo and Morwell in Victoria . In 2005, the total Regional Challenge attendance was 117,552 up from 87,000 in 2004 and 76,000 in 2003. The Regional Challenge in 2006 includes regional centres such as Cairns in the northern Queensland, Shepparton in northern Victoria & Mandurah In Western Australia. A match was also played in Mildura as a memorial game for the teenagers that died in a Mildura road accident. NEW RULE TRIALS The pre-season competition has been a place where the AFL has trialled new rules. The NAB Cup has the intentions of being modern and promoting a fast-paced pre-season competition. Such rules have included:
SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|