It's official: the run-up to the local soccer season has begun.
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Every year, a handful of Northern Inland Football teams participate in the Australia Cup prior to the beginning of the regular season.
And this weekend, another edition of the competition will begin again.
"Some clubs use it as a bit more of a serious hit-out to see where they are sitting against those more coastal sides," Northern Inland Football regional football officer, Mitch O'Keefe, said.
"Whereas some use it as a preseason game to gel their team and get a bit of chemistry going."
Nine teams from the Northern Inland Football competition will participate in this year's cup, but only five will play this weekend.
Souths United will play Boambee, Moore Creek will take on Sawtell, South Armidale United will face off with Coffs City United, Armidale City Westside will look to take down Northern Storm, and Namoi United will clash with Westlawn Tigers.
Of those games, only Namoi United (Saturday at Narrabri's Hogan Oval from 2.30pm) and Moore Creek (Sunday at Gipps Street from 2.30pm) will host.
While the strength of the opposing sides will unquestionably have changed over the last 12 months, O'Keefe said Armidale City Westside have arguably the toughest assignment of the weekend.
"They're playing a really strong coastal side," he said.
"They're in for a match to play against a better team than they'll play against all year by far. So it's a good opportunity for them to put out their strongest side and ... try to build from that.
"It'll go a long way to preparing for the Northern Inland season."
The opportunity to participate in a highly-anticipated competition against some of the best teams across the state every year is of "huge benefit" to the local clubs, O'Keefe said.
Moreover, the players look forward to it as well, as it provides them some variety from the opponents they face throughout the winter season.
"It's definitely a competition everyone looks forward to every year," O'Keefe said.
"It's just unfortunate it falls early in the year, most sides don't start training until the end of January. The Coffs team has probably been training since November or December, so it does leave the local sides at a bit of a disadvantage fitness-wise.
"But our local sides always play some pretty decent, solid football to try and combat that."
