![Lambton Jaffas will host A-League heavyweights Melbourne Victory in the Australia Cup round of 32. Picture by Peter Lorimer Lambton Jaffas will host A-League heavyweights Melbourne Victory in the Australia Cup round of 32. Picture by Peter Lorimer](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ikLFZZUcNnvgygfqz78ZET/c65d27b5-57b9-4096-84e9-967f6005e109.JPG/r0_300_5184_3526_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Edgeworth Eagles face a marathon trip and Lambton Jaffas will welcome an A-League heavyweight in the Australia Cup round of 32.
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The main draw for the national knockout competition, which is in it 10th year, was held on Wednesday night.
Edgeworth will travel to Perth to take on NPL club Olympic Kingsway while the other Northern NSW representative, Lambton Jaffas, will host beaten A-League grand finalists Melbourne Victory.
The Newcastle Jets tackle Western United in a qualifier in Darwin on July 24. If successful, they will take on Rockdake Linden in Sydney.
It is the sixth time Edgeworth have progressed to the round of 32. They lost 4-0 to A-League club Western United at home at the same stage last year.
Olympic Kingsway are the Western Australian NPL pace-setters.
The Eagles' seven-game winning run in NPL Northern NSW came to an end on Wednesday night as they succumbed 4-2 to Maitland in a catch-up clash at Jack McLaughlan Oval which was played out as the Cup draw was done.
"We've got a massive away trip," Edgeworth coach Peter McGuinness, who formerly mentored the Jets women's side, said.
"Hopefully the game gets scheduled for a weekend to give us the best preparation. You can be affected because you're three days away. And, I know that trip from doing the trip in the W-League so many times. It's a hard one.
"But we're happy with the draw and we're excited."
Travel aside, the Eagles' task is not as daunting as that of the Jaffas.
But it was a challenge Lambton coach David Tanchevski said the club would embrace, telling the Newcastle Herald on Thursday they planned to go out all guns blazing for the July 26 fixture.
"They've been a heavyweight in the A-League forever, so when we drew them last night I looked around the room and everyone just started laughing," Tanchevski said.
"There weren't many A-League teams drawn in the first half of the draw. We thought, we don't want the Mariners or we don't want Victory because they're the top two, and sure enough Victory comes out.
"We're not under any illusions. It's hard to get through to the round of 16 let alone the round of 32, and we get to play against a quality opposition and the boys are really excited by that.
"I think it will be a broadcast game so the boys will get some exposure on TV and get to play at a high level and they're looking forward to the challenge.
"It's a good experience to play a team like that and a good challenge for us to get into and see the difference in level between NPL and the A-League."
A venue has not yet been set but Tanchevski said it looked likely to be either No.2 Sportsground or Jack McLaughlan Oval.
The Jaffas are back-to-back defending champions in NPL and unbeaten this season after 14 rounds to be top of the standings with 40 points, four points clear of second-placed Broadmeadow and 12 points ahead of third-placed Charlestown (28).
"It's a different challenge," Tanchevski said.
"We've obviously been playing for a while now where we've been top of the table, so we've sort of had the mark on our back that everyone wants to beat us.
"Now we'll be coming into the Melbourne Victory game going we've got to play our grand final, where it feels like everyone's playing their grand final against us at the moment.
"It will be a bit of the reverse for us to be the underdogs and hopefully we can put on a good performance and whatever ends up ends up.
"One thing we won't do is we're not going to sit back and defend."
A-League journeyman Nikolai Topor-Stanley is unlikely to be available for the Cup clash after sustaining an ankle injury in the Jaffas' 2-1 win over Weston on Sunday. Tanchevski expected the former Socceroos defender to be sidelined for six to eight weeks.
The Jaffas have only made the Cup round of 32 once before, in 2016.
Maitland improved to seventh spot and 18 points on Wednesday night while fourth-placed Edgeworth, on 23 points, stayed just one point ahead of fifth-placed Valentine (22) as they eye Azzurri this weekend.
The Magpies made a fast start, scoring in the first minute from a long ball then twice more before the Eagles found the back of the net in the 76th minute through Ryan Feutz.
Alex Read gave Maitland a 4-1 advantage in the 86th minute before Feutz completed a match double in the 90th minute.
Jackson Burston scored Maitland's opening three goals.
"In football terms, we weren't probably at our best and we were chasing the game probably from the first minute," McGuinness said.
"So, disappointing we let that one slip because I think we created enough chances and had enough football to do so but we were off target more often than not.
"We fought til the end but everyone is disappointed probably in our performance overall as a group and we need to leave it behind and learn from it."