New cup means Ballarat, Mebourne Victory match a possibility
GAVIN MCGRATH
17 Feb, 2011 11:08 PM
BALLARAT Red Devils versus Melbourne Victory – that has become a real possibility after Football Federation Victoria announced a statewide FA Cup-style knockout competition.
The Haymes Red Devils will join the Morwell Falcons and five teams from Geelong among a limited number of regional clubs that will compete in the Mirabella Cup, starting next month.
Nearly 200 state league clubs, mostly based in Melbourne, will meet in the knockout first round of the competition on March 19.
When the knock out series is reduced to six clubs, they will be joined by the Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart in the final eight.
“This really is great news for the club and football in general for the city,” Red Devils football manager Duncan Smith said.
“It has been almost 10 years since the state had an FA cup-style competition, mainly because of the drought, and it has been even longer, maybe some 25 odd years, since the state has been going for the one cup.”
The first round will see teams from FFV state league two, including Ballarat, down to state league six clubs compete.
In the second round the state league one and premier league teams will be added.
In previous years the league divided in two, with the higher leagues playing for the State Cup and the lower leagues playing for the Provisional Cup.
The competition may expand to non state-league clubs from across Victoria from 2012.
Smith said the competition opened up the possibility of a state league club making a run towards the top, in a similar manner to Crawley Town’s bold run in the English FA Cup that will see it face Manchester United.
“I not saying that we will make the quarter-finals as there will be a lot of good teams to get past before then but in one-off matches you never know,” he said.
“Crawley Town plays in front of crowds normally of 600 to 700 supporters in the fifth tier of English football.
“In 12 days’ time they play Manchester United at Old Trafford in front of 75,000 people in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
“No one, including their own fans, probably gave them any chance of getting this far but that is what Cup runs are like: it is the romance of the FA Cup and that can happen now for the Ballarat Red Devils.
“If you can get on a run – and there is nothing like a big cup run to get the club, the players, the fans and the city excited – well, then a match against the Victory or the Heart in Ballarat would be massive.”
Longer term, it has been mooted that the eight quarter finalists from Victoria could play another 24 teams from across the country for the Australia Cup possibly played from September this year.
The winner of the Australian Cup will more than likely be given one of the two automatic spots in the Asian Champions League with the other spot going to the winner of the A-League.
FFV chief executive Mark Rendell is excited to have a knockout cup in Victoria again
“We’re expecting it to be popular throughout all of our leagues, in both metropolitan and regional Victoria, as it will provide every club a terrific opportunity to face off against Victoria’s two Hyundai A-League clubs, Melbourne Heart and Melbourne Victory.”
http://www.thecourier.com.au/news/local/sport/basketball/new-cup-means-ballarat-mebourne-victory-match-a-possibility/2079936.aspx?storypage=0