Illawarra Stingrays secure Guest Park as new training base for next five years

The agreement is a massive coup for the club following two years of COVID-19 interruptions and severe rain last season hampering any chance of training on grass facilities.

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And following training in car parks and on basketball courts for the majority of 2022, the announcement of a permanent facility will be music to the ears of all involved with the club.

The Stingrays will conduct drainage work on the ground in January in order to get the facility up to scratch before the beginning of the Women's NPL season.

Stingrays president Kathy McDonogh told the Mercury that whilst there was still work that needed to be done to secure a permanent playing base, the announcement of a training facility was a step in the right direction.

"It's been a journey," she said.

"We've thumped a lot of money into it in terms of how our funding and grants go. We've got fencing done, we've got the facilities upgraded, drainage work starts in January. So finally, for the first time in the Stingrays' history we've been able to secure our own license.

"On the back of two COVID years and last year it's never been more critical and more important [to secure a training base]. It's still a turf ground, but once we put drainage in, it's going to hopefully improve that. And it's not just a positive for the Stingrays as we have agreed to this license at guest park with the idea of it being a shared community space. We've already engaged with schools, with cricketers, other users at Guest Park so that this can be utilised as a community space," McDonogh said.

The Stingrays president added that not only would the move be a positive on the field, it would also mean a bunch to the club in terms of morale off the pitch.

"Essentially the girls don't have a team if they can't train," she said.

"Training is very much the priority. Last year we spent over $30,000 for outsourced fields. Our kids were training in car parks, school halls, basketball courts. [It was] just ridiculous. And our senior women were going to Sydney to train. All our senior teams were heading up to Sydney to train and play. The whole season out of 22 games last season we only got together twice as a club on game day and our seniors only played four games down here in Wollongong," McDonogh added.

Despite a positive showing at the start of the women's first grade season last campaign, the Stingrays eventually came undone in the absence of a permanent training facility during on-going rain forcing ground closures in the region.

New coach Steve Gordon will be looking to get his tenure off to a good start.

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