This was the first time since 2003 that the competition format had changed. With the introduction of the Gold Coast Football Club and Greater Western Sydney Giants (the latter required to make the competition feature a manageable 18 teams), the format for the 2011 NAB Cup was as follows:[1]
Weeks 1 and 2:The eighteen teams are split into six pools of three teams each. The three teams in each pool play each other in games of two 20-minute halves, with all three games being played over a three-hour period at the one venue.
Week 3: The first ranked teams from each pool progress to the quarter-finals, with the two next best ranked teams joining them, allowing an eight team quarter-finals weekend.
Week 4:The winners from the quarter-finals progress to the semi-finals.
Week 5:The two winners of the semi-finals progress to the NAB Cup Grand Final.
Games
The first round fixtures were announced by the AFL on 26 October 2010.[2][3]
By winning this NAB Cup Collingwood became the first team since their opponent Essendon, in 1993/1994, to win a pre-season premiership after winning the previous years' grand final. This was also just Collingwood's second pre-season premiership, the previous one coming in 1979.
This is Collingwood's first pre-season premiership in 32 years, which coincidentally was the same number of years difference between VFL/AFL premiership wins when they defeated Essendon in 1990.