FOLLOWING their first A-League Men\u2019s Championship win, Western United Football Club have brought their trophy to visit Ballarat.<\/p>\n
The City hosted a civic reception at the Town Hall last week to celebrate the team\u2019s success, welcoming WUFC director of football and former Socceroo Steve Horvat and CEO Chris Pehlivanis.<\/p>\n
Mr Horvat said winning a championship in their first three years of operation has been a huge achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are such rewarding days post-winning a grand final where you can come and thank the people who were there from the beginning, who supported us, believed in us, and gave us an opportunity to play in their region before we have our own stadium,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very thankful for the City of Ballarat and the region for embracing us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Cr Daniel Moloney was at the A-League Men\u2019s grand final cheering United on, and said the atmosphere was \u201celectric.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to bring some of that joy to Ballarat by having the civic reception today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to get the trophy back to do a tour of some local clubs later on in the year, because it\u2019s important young people in the early stages of playing the game are exposed to the world\u2019s best players.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing the trophy up close can really help to inspire the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently WUFC\u2019s players are on holidays, but will soon start pre-season training on Monday, 11 July.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re deep in planning for next season and looking at how we can be better,\u201d Mr Horvat said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re the titleholders, so everyone\u2019s coming for us now. We\u2019re the benchmark. We need to improve because everyone else will be looking to improve to catch us.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting, and the challenge for us now is to build on the success on the park, and off the park in our region as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FOLLOWING their first A-League Men\u2019s Championship win, Western United Football Club have brought their trophy to visit Ballarat. The City hosted a civic reception at the Town Hall last week to celebrate the team\u2019s success, welcoming WUFC director of football and former Socceroo Steve Horvat and CEO Chris Pehlivanis. Mr Horvat said winning a championship […]<\/p>\n