The Escort Cup or Escort Championships was a national club-based

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

competition that was held between 1979 and 1982. Club teams from the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL),

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

(WAFL) and the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

(SANFL) competed in the competition, along with combined sides from Tasmania, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Queensland. The competition is remembered as having games between teams from different states that wore the same jumper, resulting in one-off alternative or clash strips being worn, a concept that was not necessary in normal league games. The Collingwood and

South Fremantle Football Club South Fremantle Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Fremantle, Western Australia. The club plays in the Western Australian Football League (WAFL) and the WAFL Women's (WAFLW), commonly going by the nickname the ''Bulldogs ...

s both wore clash strips in their respective games against

Swan Districts The Swan Districts Football Club, nicknamed the Swans, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The club is based at Bassendean Oval, in Bassendean, an eastern suburb ...

and the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...

. They both lost a

coin toss A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by a ...

to decide who would retain their normal jumper and who would change. In June 1982, Swan Districts sent a junior team to play Richmond in protest to the date of their semi-final match being changed without consultation. In response, they were banned from competing in the national cup competition for the next two years.

Competing teams

Grand Final results

Despite teams from all major leagues being involved in the competition, only teams from the

played in the four grand finals.

References

Australian rules football competitions in Australia {{AFL-competition-stub