Winfield Statewide Cup
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| General Information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1980 in Hobart |
| Previous names | None. |
| Participating clubs |
Burnie Tigers City-South Redlegs Clarence Kangaroos Cooee Bulldogs Devonport Magpies East Devonport Swans East Launceston Demons Glenorchy Magpies Hobart Tigers Latrobe Demons Launceston Blues Longford Tigers New Norfolk Eagles North Hobart Demons North Launceston Robins Penguin Two Blues Sandy Bay Seagulls Scottsdale Magpies Smithton Saints Wynyard Cats Ulverstone Robins |
| Stadiums |
North Hobart Oval York Park Bellerive Oval KGV Oval Devonport Oval West Park Oval TCA Ground Windsor Park Youngtown Oval Boyer Oval Queenborough Oval Latrobe Rec. Ground Penguin Sports Ground Longford Oval Ulverstone Rec. Ground Smithton Football Ground Scottsdale Rec. Ground Girdlestone Park Wynyard Oval |
| 1980 Winfield Statewide Cup. | |
| Premiers | Hobart 9.21 (75) v Clarence 7.4 (46) |
| Grand Final attendance | 5,961 at North Hobart Oval |
| Total Round-Robin Series attendance | 58,422 for 52 matches at 1,123 (Including 10 Double-headers) |
| Average Finals Series attendance | 17,096 for 4 matches at 4,274 (Including 1 Double-header) |
| Total aggregate attendance | 75,518 for 56 matches at 1,348 (Including 11 Double-headers) |
| Player of the Tournament | Graham Fox (Glenorchy) |
The Winfield Statewide Cup was an Australian rules football tournament held in Tasmania, Australia between the top twenty-one (21) major football clubs across Tasmania from the three major footballing bodies across the state (at the time), the TANFL, the NTFA and the NWFU.
The tournament was played in a five-round format held prior to the regular season proper, over a period of seven weeks between 29 March and 17 May 1980.
The Winfield Statewide Cup competition came to fruition after discussions had been continuing for several years, as far back as 1972, mostly from TANFL executives and leading players and coaches, in wanting to expand the TANFL into a statewide competition to try to improve the perceived ailing standard of football across the state in recent years and disappointing performances of Tasmanian teams at Interstate level, notably Tasmania's disastrous displays at the 1969 and 1972 Australian National Football Carnivals which was causing the state's football reputation much harm and placing in jeopardy Tasmania's hopes of gaining Division One status within the Australian National Football Congress (and the large increase in funding the sport would ultimately receive from the ANFC as a result of attaining that status), this coincided with a disappointing loss to Queensland at Ulverstone in early 1980.
The calls had grown stronger from within the TANFL after the classic 1975 State Premiership decider between Glenorchy and North Launceston (described by many old-timers as one of the best games of football ever seen in Hobart) and after the State Premiership was finally brought to an end in 1978 in favour of sending a Tasmanian team to play interstate, the TANFL, by then seeking all control of Australian Rules Football within Tasmania ordered all clubs from the NTFA and the NWFU to participate in the tournament alongside their TANFL counterparts.
Due to the perceived dogmatic approach by the TANFL in regard to its treatment of Northern & Coastal clubs, the final straw came when North Launceston had its home Semi Final replay against Clarence switched from York Park to North Hobart Oval by the TANFL in an effort to maximise the crowd attendance.
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