Northern NSW Football has conducted the draw for its Southern Conference Preliminary Round 4 of the 2023 Australia Cup.
The draws were broadcast live on Tuesday afternoon, with 26 teams from across Community and HIT Northern League One football involved as the 12 NPL Men's NNSW clubs joined the competition for the first time.
Zone Premier League club Newcastle Suns will travel to Lisle Carr Oval to face unbeaten NPLM NNSW leaders Charlestown Azzurri, while Northern League One club Wallsend FC will make the trip to Magic Park to take on Broadmeadow.
NPLM NNSW club Adamstown Rosebud will host Northern League One side Kahibah FC, while reigning NPLM NNSW champions Lambton Jaffas will play West Wallsend SFC from Northern League One at Johnston Park.
There will be seven knockout rounds to decide the two NNSWF representatives that qualify for the national round of 32.
The two national round representatives will also play off in the NNSWF State Cup final to crown a NNSWF cup champion, while the two Community clubs who progress furthest in the Australia Cup will be invited to play off for the Men’s Community Plate. The Men's Community Plate has been introduced to provide the highest-placed community teams with the opportunity to be crowned the best community team in northern NSW.
The competition has again been split between a Northern Conference and Southern Conference. The Northern Zone featured 28 teams representing Football Far North Coast (three), North Coast Football (nine), Football Mid North Coast (six) and NNSWF - Northern Inland (10) member zones.
The Southern Conference was made up of 26 community clubs from Hunter Valley Football (five), Macquarie Football (seven) and Newcastle Football (14) member zones as well as nine HIT Northern League One clubs.
The HIT Northern League One clubs entered the competition in round three.
The 12 NPL Men’s NNSW clubs will enter the competition in round four. This will see a total of 75 NNSWF clubs enter the Australia Cup this season, the most since 2018.
