TAC Cup
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| Sport | Australian rules football |
|---|---|
| Inaugural season | 1992 |
| No. of teams | 12 |
| Country | Australia |
| Most recent champion(s) |
Oakleigh Chargers |
| Most titles | Calder Cannons (6) |
| Official website | www.taccup.com.au |
The TAC Cup is an under 18 Australian rules football representative competition held in Victoria, Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne with each team representing 12 Victorian regions.
The competition is one of the primary sources of recruitment for AFL clubs from Victoria. The TAC Cup provides an opportunity for talented regional players to participate in a high standard competition without having to relocate too far from their place of origin. The competition has a very successful pathway with players missing AFL selection often being recruited by semi-professional state, country and regional leagues throughout Australia.
With the focus of the VFL/AFL moving rapidly towards national competition, the old metropolitan and country Victorian zoning recruitment method for VFL/AFL clubs was phased out and at the start of 1992 the league's Under 19 competition was disbanded.
A new competition, administered by the Victorian State Football League and sponsored by the Transport Accident Commission, was formed as an avenue to where many young Victorian under-18 players make their transition to becoming senior Australian Football League players. In 1992 the competition consisted of five metropolitan teams and one country team. The initial teams were the Northern Knights, Eastern Ranges, Southern Stingrays (renamed the Dandenong Stingrays in 1995), Western Jets, Central Dragons (renamed the Prahran Dragons in 1995, then the Sandringham Dragons in 2000) and Geelong Falcons.
In 1993 an additional four country teams were included – the Murray Bushrangers, Bendigo Pioneers, Gippsland Power, and Ballarat Rebels (later renamed the North Ballarat Rebels). In 1995 two additional metropolitan regions were established with the Oakleigh Chargers and Calder Cannons teams included in the competition.
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