User:Eccy89/2009 Waratah Cup

The 2009 Waratah Cup (known as the Tiger Turf Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 13th season of the Waratah Cup since its initial re-introduction in 1991, and the 29th season as the premier domestic cup competition in New South Wales since inauguration in 1957.

The defending champions were National Premier Leagues NSW side Bankstown City Lions.

The champions were the Sutherland Sharks, defeating Manly United 2–1 in the final.

Teams
All senior member teams from Premier League, Super League, State League 1 and State League 2 as well as all local association teams were invited to the competition. The competition itself would be seeded with Association and State League 2 teams entering in Round 1, State League 1 and Super League teams entering in Round 2 and Premier League teams entering in Round 3. The champions were awarded $16,000 prize-money and the runners-up $6,000. All semi-finalists received $3,000.

Preliminary Round
Due to the popularity of this year's edition, 48 teams from local Associations and NSW State League Division 2 entered the initial phase of the competition. This led to the creation of the Preliminary Round where 16 clubs were randomly chosen to play. 9 clubs were from the State League Division 2 and the other 7 were from local associations. The remaining 24 clubs would receive a bye into the first round. With the round set to kick-off on 25 March, only tie numbers 1–4 were played with the remaining matches rescheduled to the following week.

Source: footballnsw.com.au and socceraust.co.uk

Round 1
A total of 32 teams competed, 8 having won in the preliminary round and 24 receiving a bye into the first round. Originally scheduled for 8 April, due to the postponement of matches in the preliminary round, most of the Round 1 matches instead began on the 15 April, with two matches played on the 22 April and a further three matches were also postponed to due to poor pitch conditions.

Source: footballnsw.com.au and socceraust.co.uk

Round 2
A total of 40 teams competed, 16 of which had progressed from Round 1 along with 24 clubs from the National Premier Leagues NSW 2 and NSW State League Division 1.

Source:footballnsw.com.au and socceraust.co.uk

Round 3
A total of 32 teams competed, 20 of which had progressed from Round 3 along with 12 clubs from National Premier Leagues NSW.

Source:footballnsw.com.au and socceraust.co.uk

Round 4
Camden Tigers were the lowest ranked team to qualify for this round from NSW fourth tier. There were no association teams left in the competition. Of the fifteen other remaining clubs, ten were from the Premier League and five from the Super League.

Source:footballnsw.com.au and socceraust.co.uk

Quarter-finals
As the only team outside of the Premier League, Fraser Park was the lowest team ranked to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Semi-finals
All remaining clubs were from NSW's top tier, the NSW Premier League.