1984–85 League Cup (rugby league)
This season saw several changes in the entrants:
# Cardiff City Blue Dragons were renamed Bridgend Blue Dragons and Kent Invicta were renamed Southend Invicta
# Mansfield Marksman and Sheffield Eagles joined the league and also the competition
# Huyton changed their name to Runcorn Highfield and moved from Alt Park, Huyton to Canal Street, Runcorn
# and the re-introduction of the invitation to two junior clubs. This involved an increase in entrants to thirty-eight, in turn resulting in a six-match, 12-club preliminary round to reduce the number of clubs taking part in the first round proper to thirty-two. Involved six matches and 12 clubs Involved 16 matches and 32 clubs Involved 8 matches and 16 clubs Involved one match and two clubs Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs Involved two matches and four clubs Scoring - Try = four (4) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = one (1) point As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season is as follows :- This tree excludes any preliminary round fixtures # 
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14 The council of the Rugby Football League voted to introduce a new competition, to be similar to The Football Association and Scottish Football Association's "League Cup". It was to be a similar knock-out structure to, and to be secondary to, the Challenge Cup. As this was being formulated, sports sponsorship was becoming more prevalent and as a result John Player and Sons, a division of Imperial Tobacco Company, became sponsors, and the competition never became widely known as the "League Cup". The competition ran from 1971–72 until 1995–96 and was initially intended for the professional clubs plus the two amateur BARLA National Cup finalists. In later seasons the entries were expanded to take in other amateur and French teams. The competition was dropped due to "fixture congestion" when Rugby League became a summer sport. The Rugby League season always (until the onset of "Summer Rugby" in 1996) ran from around August-time through to around May-time and this competition always took place early in the season, in the autumn, with the final usually taking place in late January. The competition was variably known, by its sponsorship name, as the Player's No.6 Trophy (1971–1977), the John Player Trophy (1977–1983), the John Player Special Trophy (1983–1989), and the Regal Trophy in 1989.
Notes and comments ; General information
This was the fourteenth season for the League Cup, which was again known as the John Player Special Trophy for sponsorship purposes.