Socceroos to train at Collingwood’s state of the art Westpac Centre in lead up to Asian Cup

FOOTBALL and Aussie Rules aren’t always the best of bedfellows, but the Socceroos’ Asian Cup quest will be aided by the AFL’s biggest club, Collingwood.

Tour of some of Collingwood's Westpac Facility with Luke Warnett of Elite Sports Massage with about forty of their recruits and Collingwood's Jarryd Blair

SOCCER and Aussie Rules aren’t always the best of bedfellows.

But the Socceroos quest for their first major title will be aided by the AFL’s biggest club, Collingwood.

Members of Australia’s 23-man Asian Cup squad began filing in to Melbourne on Saturday and most will have arrived in time for Sunday’s first training session at 4pm.

Coach Ange Postecoglou has vowed to exploit any advantage he can from being the tournament’s host nation and as such his players will have free reign at Collingwood’s world-class training facility, the Westpac Centre.

Collingwood's Westpac Facility’s indoor court.

Located all of 200m from AAMI Park, where Australia will open its Asian Cup campaign against Kuwait on January 9, the Westpac Centre contains a gym, 25m lap pool, hot and cold hydrotherapy pools, a medical centre, an altitude room, basketball court and 70-seat theatrette.

A soccer field has already been marked out on the Magpies’ MCG-sized training field.

Australia will conduct seven sessions there before moving to dedicated Asian Cup training grounds from January 5.

Football Federation Australia chief executive David Gallop said no stone had been left unturned in terms of giving Socceroos players the best possible preparation for the 23-day tournament.

“It’s obviously a unique opportunity to have the boys together for such an extended period of time on home soil,” Gallop said.

The Socceroos will conduct seven pre-Asian Cup sessions at the Westpac Centre.

“Ange has said from Day 1 that we want to give them world-class facilities and preparation.

“It’s always a bit of an eye-opener to realise the diverse places that these guys come together from and when they get here we want them to feel at home.

“So we’ve put a lot preparation in to making sure that they are ready to go on January 9.”

The complex was built in 1954 to host the swimming, diving and water polo at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics but, in its new “Glasshouse” moniker, later became famous for hosting National Basketball League clubs North Melbourne Giants and Melbourne Tigers.

A $20m redevelopment in 2002 paved the way for Collingwood to move in, while a further $10m upgrade in 2012 improved the facilities again.

It features a gym, a pool, hydrotherapy pools, a medical centre and an altitude room.

Magpies players are on their Christmas break, but Collingwood chief executive Gary Pert said many are keen to come down and observe the Socceroos at work.

Pert said the playing surface at the club is “just beautiful for them”.

“And they’ll use all of our gym, recovery pools, rub down tables, the whole thing,” Pert said.

“I think they’ve been blown away by the facilities which is great because within our vision of the Westpac Centre we want to make the facility available to community groups but also elite athletes and teams locally and from around the world.

“So the Socceroos are a perfect one for us to allow them to use it.”

Collingwood’s facility will be used by Ange and the Socceroos over the next two weeks.

Jordan arrived on Tuesday and will train at Mazenod College in Mulgrave, Saudi Arabia landed on Saturday and will head to Torquay on the Surf Coast while Bahrain’s training camp in Ballarat will commence after their arrival.

But none is likely to have facilities as good as what the Socceroos will have access to and that suits Postecoglou just fine.

“We’re really happy,” Postecoglou said.

“We’ve done a hell of a lot of work off field — the whole organisation has — to make sure that preparation and the camp, everything, is perfect so that when the players come in we have no issues.

“I guess that’s the advantage of having a home tournament. Whatever advantages we can get from having it here in our country we’ll use.”

Originally published as Socceroos to train at Collingwood’s state of the art Westpac Centre in lead up to Asian Cup