In the Australian Football League (AFL), previously the Victorian Football League (VFL), the pre-season competition, known during its history by a variety of sponsored names and most recently as the NAB Cup, was an annual Australian rules football tournament held amongst clubs prior to the premiership season between 1988 and 2013. The pre-season competition culminated annually in a grand final and pre-season premier.
History The pre-season competition was established from the Australian Football Championships Night Series in 1988. The Night Series had been a competition featuring VFL, SANFL, WAFL and minor states representative teams which had been staged partly in the pre-season and partly during the premiership season, generally finishing in July; but, it had reduced in size and importance until 1987, when only VFL teams were involved and the competition was finished by the end of April. In 1988, the competition was moved entirely into the pre-season, and became the VFL Pre-season Cup. The pre-season competition is generally considered to be of equivalent importance as both the AFC Night Series and the VFL Night Series (1956–1971), and records relating to the three competitions are often combined under the general name "night premierships".
Between 1988 and 1999, the competition was run as a simple knock-out tournament in which the winning teams moved through to the next round and losing teams were eliminated. Before there were sixteen teams in the AFL, the previous season's top-ranked teams (either the premier or both grand finalists) were advanced directly to the second round; after Fremantle entered the league as the 16th team in 1995, all teams began in the first round. In 1992, the competition introduced the Michael Tuck Medal for the best player in the grand final.
After criticism that the knock-out format limited the preparation of the losing teams, a round-robin format was introduced in 2000. The sixteen teams were split into groups of four, each playing three pool matches with the winner of each group advancing to the knockout semi-final stage. The public reaction to the change was mixed, as the atmosphere at some of the pool games was noticeably flat compared with previous years. The competition reverted to the straight knock-out format in 2003, and retained that format until 2010.
In 2011, the pre-season competition expanded to eighteen teams with the addition of the Gold Coast Suns (which joined the day premiership in 2011) and the Greater Western Sydney Giants (which joined the day premiership in 2012). As this precluded a straight four-round knock-out competition, the first round of the pre-season competition was staged with six pools of three teams, with each group playing a round-robin of half-length lightning matches on the same day at the same venue. The format from that point was: In 2011, the winner of each of the six groups, and the two teams with the next-best records, advanced to an eight-team knock-out tournament of full-length games. In 2012 and 2013, all teams then played two pre-scheduled full-length games, giving each team a total of four matches (two lightning matches and two full-length matches). The teams with the best two records over the four matches then faced off in the Grand Final.
After 2013, the competitive aspect of the preseason was abandoned altogether, and replaced with a series of standalone practice matches over several weeks prior to the home-and-away season, featuring no ranking or overall winner. By the 2021 pre-season, these matches were reduced to a single weekend, principally due to changing border restrictions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The series has still had its own sponsored name throughout much of this time, although matches are also simply termed "official practice matches."
Winners Year Premier Runner up Scores Venue Crowd Margin Winner Season Runner up Season 1988 Hawthorn Geelong 10.10 (70) – 9.13 (67) VFL Park 35,803 3 Premier 9th 1989 Melbourne Geelong 10.16 (76) – 9.13 (67) VFL Park 48,720 9 Semi Finalist Grand Finalist 1990 Essendon North Melbourne 17.10 (112) – 10.16 (76) VFL Park 48,559 36 Grand Finalist 6th 1991 Hawthorn (2) North Melbourne 14.19 (103) – 7.12 (54) VFL Park 46,629 49 Premier 8th 1992 Hawthorn (3) Fitzroy 19.14 (128) – 8.15 (63) VFL Park 49,453 65 Elimination Finalist 10th 1993 Essendon (2) Richmond 14.18 (102) – 11.13 (79) VFL Park 75,533 23 Premier 14th 1994 Essendon (3) Adelaide 15.12 (102) – 9.14 (68) VFL Park 43,925 34 10th 11th 1995 North Melbourne Adelaide 14.9 (93) – 8.15 (63) VFL Park 39,393 30 Preliminary Finalist 11th 1996 St Kilda Carlton 20.10 (130) – 10.12 (72)VFL Park 66,888 58 10th Semi Finalist 1997 Carlton Geelong 14.13 (97) – 5.10 (40) MCG 63,898 57 11th Semi Finalist 1998 North Melbourne (2) St Kilda 14.13 (97) – 12.11 (83) VFL Park 63,760 14 Grand Finalist Semi Finalist 1999 Hawthorn (4) Port Adelaide 12.11 (83) – 5.6 (36) VFL Park 49,874 47 9th Elimination Finalist 2000 Essendon (3) Kangaroos 16.21 (117) – 11.10 (76) MCG 56,720 41 Premier Preliminary Finalist 2001 Port Adelaide Brisbane Lions 17.9 (111) – 3.8 (26) Football Park 35,304 85 Semi Finalist Premier 2002 Port Adelaide (2) Richmond 10.11 (71) – 9.8 (62) Colonial Stadium 36,481 9 Preliminary Finalist 14th 2003 Adelaide Collingwood 2.13.8 (104) – 1.9.10 (73) Telstra Dome 43,571 31 Semi Finalist Grand Finalist 2004 St Kilda (2) Geelong 1.14.5 (98) – 1.10.7 (76) Telstra Dome 50,533 22 Preliminary Finalist Preliminary Finalist 2005 Carlton (2) West Coast 1.14.18 (111) – 1.11.9 (84) Telstra Dome 43,391 27 16th (Wooden Spoon) Grand Finalist 2006 Geelong Adelaide 3.10.5 (92) – 1.10.15 (84) AAMI Stadium 30,707 8 9th Preliminary Finalist 2007 Carlton (3) Brisbane Lions 2.12.7 (97) – 0.10.12 (72) Telstra Dome 46,094 25 15th 10th 2008 St Kilda (3) Adelaide 2.7.9 (69) – 0.9.10 (64) AAMI Stadium 26,823 5 Preliminary Finalist Elimination Finalist 2009 Geelong (2) Collingwood 0.18.19 (127) – 1.6.6 (51) Etihad Stadium 37,277 76 Premier Preliminary Finalist 2010 Western Bulldogs St Kilda 2.13.8 (104) – 0.9.10 (64) Etihad Stadium 42,381 40 Preliminary Finalist Grand Finalist 2011 Collingwood Essendon 1.15.9 (108) – 0.13.8 (86) Etihad Stadium 45,304 22 Grand Finalist Elimination Finalist 2012 Adelaide (2) West Coast 2.10.17 (95) – 2.5.13 (61) AAMI Stadium 27,376 34 Preliminary Finalist Semi Finalist 2013 Brisbane Carlton 0.16.13 (109) – 2.7.9 (69) Etihad Stadium 24,884 40 12th Semi Finalist
Source:
Most pre-season cup premierships Team WinsMost Recent WinEssendon42000Hawthorn41999St Kilda32008Carlton32007Adelaide22012Geelong22009Port Adelaide22002North Melbourne21998Brisbane12013Collingwood12011Western Bulldogs12010Melbourne11989
Rules Most games during the pre-season competition, including the final, were night matches. Normal games were typically played slightly short of full-length (quarters lasting 17½ or 18 minutes plus time-on instead of the normal 20), and with an extended interchange bench of six or eight players to offer less physically demanding conditions for the pre-season games. Lightning matches, when they were played from 2011 until 2013, were played over two-halves of 20 minutes plus time-on. Extra time was played to resolve drawn knock-out games.
From 2003 to 2017, pre-season matches featured the super goal as a scoring option. The super goal, which scores nine points, is awarded for a goal kicked from beyond the 50-metre arc.
Particularly in the 21st century, the pre-season competition was used to trial rule changes before they are introduced into the premiership season. Among the notable rule trials were:
2003 Three points for a deliberate rushed behind.
2005 After a behind is scored, no requirement to wait for the goal umpires to finish waving their flags before kicking out. (Has been introduced into the premiership season) A larger centre circle. Four field umpires. (Has been introduced into the premiership season) Umpires coming in 10m from the boundary line to throw in the ball. Play on if the ball hits the goal post and bounces back into the field of play.
2006 Play on called for backward kicks, except when that kick takes place within the attacking team's forward 50m.
2007 Video replay umpire for goals. Ability for goal umpire decisions to be overruled by video umpire. All nine umpires able to pay free kicks (includes boundary and goal umpires) (Trialled only in Melbourne vs Hawthorn Round 1 NAB Cup 2007) Play on called for backward kicks, only in the defensive half of the field. Kick must travel 20m to be paid a mark.
2008 Eight players on the interchange bench, only 16 interchanges permitted each quarter. 2.5m x 6.5m "no-go" area around the centre bounce, where players are prohibited before and during the bounce until the umpire clears the area. Centre bounces only at the start of a quarter and after goals, ball is thrown up otherwise. (Has been introduced into the premiership season)
2009 If the ball is hand-passed or kicked for a rushed behind the opposition receives a free kick (Introduced into the premiership season in 2009 AFL season)
2010 Players can determine if there is an advantage in play (has been introduced into the premiership season)
Notable events 1990 Essendon vs Fitzroy (Feb.28) was the first VFL/AFL match to be decided using extra-time – Essendon winning by a goal in overtime then winning their next two matches to claim the title.
1993
Problems with new turf at Waverley Park forced the relocation of three matches – Melbourne v Collingwood (Feb.17) was moved to Princes Park, whilst Essendon v Brisbane (Feb.27) and Footscray v Fitzroy (Feb.28) were moved to Kardinia Park.
A record night series/pre-season Grand Final crowd of 75,533 fans saw Essendon defeat Richmond.
1997
The grand final was held at the MCG to capitalise on Grand Prix weekend in Melbourne, the first time it had been played away from Waverley Park. A near-record crowd of 74,786 watched Carlton defeat Geelong.
1998 Pre-season football was played outside Australia for the first time, with Brisbane defeating Fremantle in Cape Town, South Africa (Feb.22) followed by Melbourne defeating Sydney in Wellington, New Zealand (Mar.1).
2000 Carlton and Collingwood played the earliest pre-season match in history, with a one-off match called the "Millennium Challenge" played on the evening of 31 December 1999 at the MCG and counting towards the preseason competition. The game attendance was 16,678.
2001 The final was played for the first time between two non-Victorian teams, and consequently the match was played outside Victoria, at Football Park in Adelaide.
2006 A new rule was introduced to determine the venue of the pre-season Grand Final. The team scoring the most goals in the first three rounds would host the title match. If two teams were tied after the semi-finals the number of super goals kicked would act as a tie-breaker.
Naming rights sponsors
Pre-season competition Panasonic Cup (1988–89) Foster's Cup (1990–94) Ansett Australia Cup (1995–2001) Wizard Home Loans Cup (2002–2005) NAB Cup (2006–2013)
Pre-season series NAB Challenge (2014–2016) JLT Community Series (2017–2019) Marsh Community Series (2020) AAMI Community Series (2021–2022; 2024–)
Trophy
The trophy design for the pre-season cup varied greatly over the years.
During its time as the Wizard Home Loans Cup, the trophy was affectionately known by fans as the "Wizard Wok" due to its shape resembling a wok.
Monetary prize The prize money awarded to the winning club was A$180,000 as of the 2012 NAB Cup, awarded by the National Australia Bank as major sponsor of the competition.