The fate of Goulburn Valley Suns’ magical Australia Cup journey has been revealed.
On Wednesday night the Orangemen watched on from The Deck, Shepparton as their name was drawn from the pot, with the opposition named as APIA Leichhardt.
It’s a home draw for the Suns, who will host the Sydney-based National Premier League One (NPL1) NSW side at McEwen Reserve.
The date of the fixture is yet to be announced, but will sit in between a window of August 4-14.
Suns midfielder Matt Lelliott, who has been a part of the club since near inception, was stoked to get a home draw for the blockbuster clash.
“We’ve got nothing to lose; we were the underdogs since round five, so can’t wait to get the boys together,” he said.
“We’ve got a couple (of players) out at the minute, hopefully by early August we’ll have a lot of players back full strength.
“We’ll put a good fight up for them.”
Just 32 teams remain in the competition, with the upcoming fixtures part of its national stage.
Suns progressed through by beating Hume City 2-0 in the seventh stage of the Victorian division, which marked the furthest territory reached by the Goulburn Valley side.
It sparked raptures from a packed out McEwen Reserve crowd and Lelliott is eager to see if his side can repeat the feat in the round of 32.
“Honestly, it was crazy ― the fanfare after we won that game against Hume ― I’ve never seen anything like it,” Lelliott said.
“We knew nothing about Hume, I don’t think we’d ever played against them apart from one or two pre-season games and then when we were in NPL1.
“The whole of Shepp was behind us, the council getting involved, we got a message from (City of Greater Shepparton mayor) Shane Sali, I got messages from all over Australia.
“All of my mates were saying ‘this is unreal’. I didn’t realise how big it was.”
As for APIA Leichhardt, the side currently tops the NPL NSW ladder and is considered one of the strongest teams in the state.
The Tigers reached the quarter-finals of the competition in 2021, and have also won the tournament ― when it was formally known as the FFA Cup ― in 1966, 1982 and 1988.
That won’t stop Lelliott and the Suns from bringing the noise to the NPL powerhouse in a little more than a month’s time.
“We’ve been pretty good this year against the better teams, so I’m just buzzing,” Lelliott said.
“Obviously I can’t wait for it to come to head.”