The Eagles take on Valentine at NNSWF headquarters at Speers Point on Wednesday night and Maitland hosted Hamilton on Tuesday night for two spots in the nationwide draw. They are backing up after winning through on Saturday in matches at Speers Point.

The final-eight qualifiers, featuring two northern conference teams, have been played at the facility on the June long weekend Saturday since 2015. Winners backed up on the Sunday in the first two years but player welfare concerns prompted a change to push the next games to the Monday or midweek.

Zane believed the final games should be weekend matches given they are the most important, or the winners should at least be given longer to recover.

"When you are playing for something so massive, I just can't agree with teams backing up midweek," Zane said.

Lopsided scores against northern conference teams also again raised questions about the draw and whether those sides should be given two spots in the final eight. Hamilton defeated Far North Coast side Bangalow 10-1 and Maitland beat North Coast's Boambee 7-2.

Only one northern side, Coffs City in 2017, have made the NNSW final four and none have gone further. The two northern representatives have scored five goals and conceded 50 across five years and 10 games in the final-eight round.