1978 Amco Cup

The 1978 Amco Cup was a rugby league football tournament featuring teams from around the Australian states of New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, Northern Territory as well as New Zealand. The tournament was played from March to August 1982, culminating in the final between Sydney clubs Eastern Suburbs and St George.

Format

The format of the fifth midweek cup competition operated on a straight knock-out format consisting of 38 teams. 3 new teams were introduced. They were Gold Coast, Wellington NZ and Wynnum-Manly whilst Ryde-Eastwood and Canterbury NZ were left out after playing in the 1977 competition.

The competition was composed of the 12 Sydney premiership teams (Balmain, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cronulla-Sutherland, Eastern Suburbs, Manly-Warringah, Newtown, North Sydney, Parramatta, Penrith, St George, South Sydney and Western Suburbs), 9 Brisbane Premiership teams (Brothers, Easts BRL, Fortitude Valley, Ipswich, Norths BRL, Redcliffe, Souths BRL, Wests BRL and Wynnum-Manly), the 8 New South Wales divisional teams (Illawarra, Monaro, Newcastle, North Coast, Northern Division, Riverina, Southern Division and Western Division), Auckland, Central Queensland, Gold Coast, North Queensland, Northern Territory, Toowoomba, Wellington NZ, Western Australia and Wide Bay.

Teams were seeded and as a result some teams received byes through to the second, third or even fourth round.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Quarter finals

Semi finals

Final

As with all mid-season Cup games, the Final of the 1978 Amco Cup was broadcast into NSW by 0–10 with commentary from Ray Warren, Keith Barnes and in his first ever co-commentating role on television, legendary rugby league broadcaster Frank Hyde.

Notes

• *- Advanced on penalty count-back