The Australia Cup Round of 32 continues tonight with four matches to be played across four states, headlined by the returns of last season’s finalists Newcastle Jets and Heidelberg United.

Last October, the two clubs showed the best of what the Cup can be in a tight but well-spirited affair that saw Heidelberg take the lead as they aimed to become the first state-league side to win the title, before the Jets prevailed 3-1 after extra-time – breaking their own trophy drought in the process.

Newcastle tonight begin their Cup defence against another traditional Victorian heavyweight in Preston, who make their long-awaited (modern) Australia Cup debut. Disappointingly, the build-up has lost some gloss following the behaviour of Preston fans during Saturday’s NPL fixture at South Melbourne, which is subject to investigation by Victoria Police and Football Victoria.

‘It will be really fascinating to see how Preston take to the task of the national stage of the Cup for the first time – noting of course they have played in the [Australian] Championship in recent history,’ Network 10 caller Lachie Flannigan told Box2Box.

‘They’ve signed awfully well during the mid-season window. They’ve poached Nahuel Bonada from South Melbourne; Antonee Burke-Gilroy has also come in. Luca Tevere, who actually had a pretty good time at Perth and I thought was unlucky not to stick around in the A-League, has come back and started scoring. They’ve put together a lot of pieces at the right time.

‘The Jets are a bit of an unknown quantity. You’d trust Mark Milligan after the first season he’s had, but the amount of turnover they’ve suffered – we’ve seen how that’s affected teams, reigning champions, in editions of the Cup gone by. This one could potentially be another one for the Cupset files.’

The Jets departures have been significant. Of their starting eleven from May’s A-League semi-final second leg, five have left – headlined by Eli Adams and Lachie Bayliss – while as has last season’s captain, Kosta Grozos.

In their place Milligan has, at least initially, plumped for experience: Joe Lolley, Nikos Vergos and Alex Grant are all north of thirty, and should go some way to ensuring the Jets maintain last season’s momentum.

Meanwhile, Heidelberg travels to South Australia with designs on commencing another Cup run. It appears a favourable opening fixture, against Cup-debutants Cumberland United; led by former Newcastle manager Phil Stubbins, they sit seventh in their South Australia’s second tier.

On Wednesday, 2022 finalists Sydney United ‘58 play hosts to Central Coast Mariners at Edensor Park. United twice rolled professional opposition on their way to that final; if only historically, the Mariners had best be wary, having been eliminated at this stage on three occasions by state-league opposition (2016, ‘17 & ‘24).

‘Sydney United have been one of the stories of the season in New South Wales. They were an absolute dumpster fire in the Australian Championship and didn’t amount to much other than a Waratah Cup win under Ante Juric [last season],’ said Flannigan.

‘But under Miro Vlastelica they’ve been very much a different kettle of fish – and they are a Cup team, winning the Waratha Cup here again. The Mariners have had so much off-season turmoil… honestly, you could make an argument that United are even money, maybe even marginal favourites here.

‘We don’t know the scale of the senior squad the Mariners have signed for this season, so you’d imagine the youth stocks – playing in the NSW second tier – will be heavily pulled from. I think Andrew Redmayne will have to pull out a big old performance at Edensor Park!’