The Waratah Cup is a knockout cup competition in

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, run by the governing body of football in NSW, Football NSW. Teams competing in the Waratah Cup come from the

National Premier Leagues NSW The National Premier Leagues NSW is a semi-professional soccer competition in New South Wales, Australia. The competition is conducted by Football NSW, the organising body in New South Wales (the other being the National Premier Leagues Norther ...

National Premier Leagues NSW 2 The NSW League One Men is an Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from New South Wales. The league sits at Level 2 on the New South Wales league system, behind the National Premier Leagues NSW, (Level 3 of t ...

National Premier Leagues NSW 3 The NSW League Two Men is an Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from New South Wales. The league sits at Level 3 on the New South Wales league system (Level 4 of the overall Australian league system). The c ...

National Premier Leagues NSW 4 The NSW League Three Men is a defunct regional Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from New South Wales. The league was sits at Level 4 on the New South Wales league system (Level 5 of the overall Australian ...

and numerous other semi professional & amateur association clubs within New South Wales. The Cup is held during the

NPL NSW The National Premier Leagues NSW is a semi-professional soccer competition in New South Wales, Australia. The competition is conducted by Football NSW, the organising body in New South Wales (the other being the National Premier Leagues Northern ...

seasons. Since 2014 preliminary rounds of the Waratah Cup have been used to determine the NSW entrants to the national FFA Cup competition, now known as the Australia Cup.

History

The Waratah Cup commenced in 1991 teams featuring clubs from the top 4 tiers of football in

, as well as teams from non-league associations.

Hakoah Sydney City East Maccabi Hakoah Sydney City East FC, commonly known as Maccabi Hakoah, is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club was formed in 1939 as Sydney Hakoah by members of Sydney's Jewish community. They pla ...

have won the cup the most times with seven wins. Sydney Crescent Star are the only non-league team to win the competition in 2004.

Current cup competitions (since 2014)

Since 2014 the Waratah Cup has become part of the qualifying competition for the FFA Cup, now known as the Australia Cup. In 2014, seven teams qualified for the Round of 32. For 2015, the preliminary rounds of the

2015 FFA Cup The 2015 FFA Cup was the second season of the FFA Cup, the main national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. 32 teams began competition in the competition proper (from the round of 32), including all 10 A-League teams, the reigning Nat ...

replaced the early rounds of the competition; the 5 NSW qualifiers to the

Round of 32 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

then competed for the

2015 Waratah Cup The 2015 Waratah Cup was the 13th season of Football NSW's knockout competition, and which ran from 3 June to 5 July. The Preliminary rounds are now a part of the 2015 FFA Cup competition. The 5 winners from the FFA Cup preliminary Seventh Roun ...

. Starting in 2015, the reigning champions of the

National Premier Leagues The National Premier Leagues (NPL) is a national association football competition in Australia which acts as the second tier of the sport in the country below the A-League. The NPL consists of the highest level state league in each state-based ...

qualified directly for the FFA Cup proper (round of 32).

Blacktown City Blacktown City Council is a local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1906 as the Blackt ...

Sydney United Sydney United 58 Football Club is a semi-professional soccer club and current NSW NPL Champions based in Edensor Park, Sydney, New South Wales Australia. The club was formed as Sydney Croatia in 1958, by Croatian Australians in the area, but ...

, and

Wollongong Wolves Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wat ...

won the NPL national championships in 2015, 2016, and 2019 respectively. Therefore the three teams were not required to participate in FFA Cup preliminary rounds in 2016, 2017, and 2021. They were also seeded directly into final rounds of the Waratah Cup in the respective seasons, along with the other FFA Cup qualifiers from NSW. From 2020 onwards, NSW qualification to the Round of 32 decreased to four slots instead of the previous five.

Previous Waratah Cup competitions since Federation

Honours since Federation

All-time honour board
This list includes all Waratah Cup champions and runners-up since the inaugural New South Wales Federation of Soccer Clubs in 1957.

Earlier NSW State Cups pre-Federation

Notes

References

External links

Waratah Cup website
{{AUS fb state NSW Recurring sporting events established in 1991 Soccer cup competitions in Australia