UPDATE: PORT Melbourne coach Gary Ayres wants the Foxtel Cup to revert to being played on weekends rather than Tuesday nights, citing the difficulty in managing state league players on a part-time basis.
The Borough face North Ballarat in the VFL just five days after tonight’s Foxtel Cup clash at the MCG against West Adelaide.
Speaking ahead of the clash against former Hawthorn premiership team-mate Andy Collins, coach of the Bloods, Ayres has called for the AFL and Foxtel to revert the competition back to being played on weekends.
There is also a fear that some participants aren’t taking the competition all that seriously – although Ayres cited that the prizemoney on offer would be “handy”.
“I’d be in favour of that (a move back to playing on a weekend) because it’s just so hard to manage our players on a part-time basis,” Ayres said.
“I haven’t seen a heck of a lot of crowd support in the concept so far. If we’re going to promote it, we’ve actually got to make sure we promote it in the best light possible.”
“I think it’s (the competition’s) certainly got some merit but it’s got to be done in the best possible light.”
“We only train three times a week so you have to be man-managed and physically managed as best as you can.”
“This is the first time (in three years of the Foxtel Cup) that you’ve got to back up after five days on a Tuesday night,” he said.
Foxtel’s decision to showcase matches on a Tuesday night rather than a weekend has more to do with its pre-match coverage of AFL matches. The Foxtel Cup coverage was conflicting with this on weekends.
Tune in Tuesday June 11 from 8:30pm to see live coverage of Port Melbourne vs West Adelaide from the MCG on Fox Footy.
Or attend the game – entry is free and gates 2 opens at 8pm.
Port Melbourne line-up below vs West Adelaide
B: M.Johnston D Noonan J Purcell
HB: T.Langford H Sandilands C Woodley
C:T.Gordon J Muling J Rowe
HF S Valenti B Burstin S O’Sullivan
F: Clay Johnston R Gale D Hughes
Foll: Gilmore M Smith N Batsanis
Inter: O’Farrell Fieldsend Mascitti Whelan
Emeg: O’Sullivan Papaleo McMahon
