THE FOXTEL Cup will return in 2013, but although the knockout format has been retained the competition will feature a reduced number of matches and six fewer teams than this season.

In another initiative, all of the round-one games, the semi -finals and the Grand Final will be played on Tuesday nights and telecast around the nation on Fox Footy.

Most Foxtel Cup games were played on Saturdays this year.

In a boost for the competition, which was first held in 2011, the top two teams in the VFL (Port Melbourne and Werribee), SANFL (Norwood and West Adelaide) and WAFL (Claremont and East Fremantle) are all going to take part next year.

This year the top teams in the SANFL (Eagles and Central District) refused to enter, leaving Port Adelaide and South Adelaide, who had both missed the SANFL finals in 2011, to fill their places.
 
A further change from previous years will see four leading teams from the Tasmanian State Football League (Burnie) and the NEAFL (Queanbeyan, Southport and NT Thunder) play qualifying matches to win the right to play in the competition.

The 2012 Foxtel Cup was won by WAFL side Claremont, with Tom Lee, who was later recruited by St Kilda, kicking six goals in the Grand Final against Werribee.

Because this year's competition featured 16 teams, the Tigers had to win four games to claim the title.

But after criticism from state bodies about how much the Foxtel Cup was impacting on their fixtures, and how much energy it was sapping from their top players, only 10 clubs will take part next year and just eight of them will qualify for the main draw.

That means a SANFL, VFL or WAFL side will now have to win only three games to claim the $100,000 winners' cheque.
 
All matches will again consist of four shortened quarters (about 20 minutes) to lessen the load on players as well as to enable games to fit into a two-hour broadcast window.