English FA Cup Answer to Australian Football League Preseason Woes

An English FA Cup style competition will solve the AFL's preseason fixturing problems. The FA Cup is the oldest soccer tournament in the world and features teams from seven tiers off British soccer.

What I am suggesting is a simplified version of the knockout competition,which comprises of 32 teams from around Australia. All 16 AFL teams automatically qualify, this will be increased to 18 by 2012.

The remaining spots are filled by the top sides from around Australia participating in state leagues. To make the allocation fair, the number of sides from each league would be decided according to the quality of the competition.

For instance the VFL would be considered higher quality than the WAFL, which would be considered higher quality than the QLD league.

The allocation could be be: VFL five teams, SANFL three teams, WAFL three teams, QAFL two teams, Sydney Football League one team, Tasmanian Football League one team.

This would make up the 32 required for a knockout competition. The tournaments first two rounds could be held over a month before the season begins. That's 24 games over 4 weekends. If a team is knocked out, it has the option of staging privately organised intra-club games or practice games against other clubs to further its preseason.

The remaining games could be spread out to allocated weekends of the season, and the final could be held after the completion of the home and away season. The final would be a showpiece event held at the MCG, perhaps as a twilight match.

One of the advantages of this competition is it raises interest in previously meaningless games. The potential for a state league team to play against a top AFL side and win is added interest for spectators, and this also provides these lower sides with a cash injection.

The competition also provides teams who aren't challenging for the premiership to win a trophy, and allows clubs who are in a strong on-field position to maximise the amount of silverware they win.

Extra prize money could be awarded to a team which does the 'double' and wins the premiership and the cup, or even a priority pick could be offered to the winner for the next season's draft.

The competition also provides extra commercial opportunities and revenue for the AFL and the competing clubs. The TV rights could also prove valuable to a station which isn't involved in the agreement at that time.

This competition would add another dimension to Australia's football history and would boost the interest in the AFL preseason.