2013 Foxtel Cup
# 2013 Foxtel Cup

The 2013 Foxtel Cup was the third season of the Australian rules football knock-out cup competition involving clubs from the various state league competitions from around Australia.

The Cup's purpose is to support and promote the second-tier Australian rules football competitions and to provide another way of developing lower-tier Australian Football League (AFL) players.

All matches, as in previous years, were broadcast by Fox Footy.

The format of the competition saw four significant changes from the first two years of the competition:

* The number of teams competing was reduced from sixteen to ten.
* The qualifiers from the Tasmanian Football League and the North East Australian Football League competed in a separate pre-qualifying round before progressing to play against the Victorian, South Australian and Western Australian qualifiers.
* With the exception of the pre-qualifying round, matches played on Tuesday nights as stand alone games. Previously they had been played on Saturdays, usually as curtain-raisers to AFL matches, forcing the state leagues to schedule extra bye weeks to accommodate Foxtel Cup games.
* The prizemoney was increased to $100,000.

For the first time, the highest-ranked qualifiers from each state all elected to compete in the competition; in the previous two years, the top South Australian clubs had declined to participate. However, both the VFL premiers and the NEAFL premiers in 2012 were reserves teams for AFL clubs (Geelong and Brisbane Lions respectively), so neither was invited to participate.

The competition began in April 2013 and concluded with the Grand Final in August 2013, in which West Adelaide defeated East Fremantle by four points at AAMI Stadium in a low scoring thriller. It was the Bloods' first trophy of any sort since their last SANFL premiership in 1983.

West Adelaide onballer (and former AFL player for the Crows and Lions) Chris Schmidt was awarded the Coles Medal as best-on-ground in the Grand Final for his unrelenting performance that included 26 disposals and nine clearances. He also operated at 81 per cent disposal efficiency.

## 2013 season

### Club details

| Club | Nickname | Location | Qualified as |
| - | - | - | - |
| Burnie Football Club | Dockers | Burnie, Tasmania | Tasmanian Football League premiers 2012 |
| Claremont Football Club | Tigers | Claremont, Western Australia | West Australian Football League premiers 2012 |
| East Fremantle Football Club | Sharks | East Fremantle, Western Australia | West Australian Football League runners-up 2012 |
| Northern Territory Football Club | Thunder | Darwin, Northern Territory | NEAFL Northern Conference runners-up 2012 |
| Norwood Football Club | Redlegs | Norwood, South Australia | South Australian National Football League premiers 2012 |
| Port Melbourne Football Club | Borough | Port Melbourne, Victoria | Victorian Football League runners-up 2012 |
| Queanbeyan Football Club | Tigers | Queanbeyan, New South Wales | NEAFL Eastern Conference premiers 2012 |
| Southport Australian Football Club | Sharks | Southport, Queensland | NEAFL Northern Conference 3rd place 2012 |
| Werribee Football Club | Tigers | Werribee, Victoria | Victorian Football League 3rd place 2012 |
| West Adelaide Football Club | Bloods | Richmond, South Australia | South Australian National Football League runners-up 2012 |

## Stadiums

| Adelaide | Canberra | Gold Coast |
| - | - | - |
| AAMI Stadium Capacity: 51,224 | Manuka Oval Capacity: 13,550 | Metricon Stadium Capacity: 25,000 |
| Melbourne | Melbourne | Perth |
| Etihad Stadium Capacity: 56,347 | Melbourne Cricket Ground Capacity: 100,000 | Patersons Stadium Capacity: 43,500 |

## Fixture

The AFL released the fixture on 3 December 2012. 2013 Foxtel Cup Fixture

### Bracket

| Qualifying round | Qualifying round | Qualifying round | Qualifying round | Round one | Round one | Round one | Round one | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Grand final | Grand final | Grand final | Grand final |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | | | | Werribee | 16 | 17 | 113 | | | | | | | | |
| Queanbeyan | 13 | 10 | 88 | Queanbeyan | 4 | 4 | 28 | | | | | | | | |
| NT Thunder | 4 | 11 | 35 | | | | | Werribee | 2 | 4 | 16 | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | East Fremantle | 6 | 4 | 40 | | | | |
| | | | | Norwood | 4 | 11 | 35 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | East Fremantle | 6 | 6 | 42 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | East Fremantle | 2 | 16 | 28 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | West Adelaide | 4 | 8 | 32 |
| | | | | Port Melbourne | 9 | 4 | 58 | | | | | | | | |
| Southport | 11 | 11 | 77 | West Adelaide | 17 | 9 | 111 | | | | | | | | |
| Burnie | 7 | 7 | 49 | | | | | West Adelaide | 6 | 7 | 43 | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | Claremont | 3 | 8 | 26 | | | | |
| | | | | Claremont | 12 | 8 | 80 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | Southport | 4 | 2 | 26 | | | | | | | | |
