Brisbane Roar unveil new training base

FOR perhaps the first time in their 13-year history, Brisbane Roar feel wanted, after they unveiled the new training base.

Brisbane Roar players at their new training base.

FOR perhaps the first time in their 13-year history, Brisbane Roar feel wanted.

The Roar officially unveiled their new $9 million training and administration base at Heritage Park on Wednesday.

Funded by Logan City Council, the facility is what the Roar have been crying out for.

“It’s superb,” Roar skipper Matt McKay said.

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A member of the club’s squad when the A-League started in 2005, McKay has experienced it all in terms of the club’s previous homes – Richlands, Ballymore and Griffith University’s Mount Gravatt and Nathan campuses.

Brisbane Roar players at their new training base.

McKay almost felt embarrassed when foreign players had come to the Roar and had been forced to train at venues where other sports, not football, were the priority.

“We’ve got everything we need and it will be set up for the future. To players that come in, we can say it’s ours,” he said.

“Someone’s given us a chance. No-one else has gone ‘here’s some land, here’s a facility’.

“A lot of other codes are desperate for that as well. To have Logan City Council put their hands up has been great.”

Logan Mayor Luke Smith declared his city “the home of football in Queensland”.

And with good reason. Football Brisbane is based at the same Heritage Park facility, while Football Queensland’s home is nearby at Slacks Creek venue Meakin Park.

Brisbane Roar’s new training base.

McKay said the Roar’s new home would further boost the club’s late-season revival.

After a horror start to their campaign, the Roar have won five of their past seven A-League matches to have their finals’ destiny in their own hands with four rounds of the regular season remaining.

“We’ve had a great run and this just picks it up again. Change is what keeps you focused,” said McKay, whose side meets cellar-dwellers Wellington Phoenix on Sunday.

“We’ve got four games now. Everyone knows the position we’re in. Everyone’s a lot more confident … it’s a good feeling.”