Perth Glory is delighted to confirm that the club will be playing its final game of the regular Westfield W-League 2019/20 Season at Hay Park in Bunbury.
The Saturday 29 February clash with Western Sydney Wanderers (kick off at 7.15pm), will round off a full week of community engagement in the south-west city which is set to include an open training session, numerous coaching clinics run by Glory’s community department and Football West, plus a Coach the Coaches clinic conducted by Glory’s Westfield W-League Head Coach, Bobby Despotovski.
Click HERE for tickets and HERE to register for the FREE coaching clinics and events.
Despotovski was joined by defender Natasha Rigby, along with the MLA for Bunbury, Don Punch, Mayor of the City of Bunbury, Gary Brennan and Football West Development Officer Annie Leyland, at Monday’s media conference which was held at Hay Park.
The game will mark the second time that Glory have played a Westfield W-League fixture in Bunbury in the last three years and Mayor Brennan is confident that the huge success of the 2018 event will be repeated.
“We are so thrilled that Perth Glory have decided to come back to Bunbury and we look forward to hosting the team and all the support crew,” he said.
“Last year was a terrific experience for everybody and I just loved the fact that Glory were able to spend a few days here doing some coaching.
“The City is delighted to have again assisted with the sponsorship of bringing Glory here and I’m looking forward to a great match at what is a fantastic field here at Hay Park.”
Those sentiments were echoed by MLA Punch.
“Like our Mayor, I’m thrilled that Glory are visiting again,” he said.
“It was a fantastic visit last year, not only the game, but all of the coaching clinics and work with the coaches and participants which all makes a huge difference to our community.
“This really highlights what can happen when State Government and Local Government work together.
“We’ve got fantastic facilities here, we’ve combined with the Country Enrichment Fund to support the City sponsorship and the outcome is that Perth Glory will be down, not only to play a fantastic game in a fantastic city, but also working with the heaps of talented people who are getting into soccer.”
The State Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries and Lotterywest, is a major supporter of Perth Glory and the Westfield W-League fixture in Bunbury.
Sport and recreation builds stronger, healthier, happier and safer communities and Despotovski was quick to acknowledge the cooperation between a number of organisations which made the event possible, with Rigby adding how much she is relishing the prospect of interacting with the local football community.
“I’d like to thank Football West, the Department of Sport and Recreation and Don [Punch] and Gary [Brennan] for making this opportunity possible,” said Despotovski.
“It’s great for us to come and spend some time here and it’s an opportunity for the south-west football community to come along and support the girls.”
“I’m from Margaret River,” added Rigby, “so last time we came down, it was a great opportunity for myself to play in front of my friends and family.
“We had a really exciting game and it was awesome to get involved with the community.
“So many young girls came down and were so eager to play, it was awesome to see and I can’t wait for that to happen again.”
The final word was left to Football West’s Annie Leyland who elaborated on some of the details of what will be a week-long feast of football.
“There will be numerous activations and training sessions,” she said.
“One of the things we’re going to try and do is engage with is the parents of players, to get them more active in the game.
“In terms of the matchday events, we’re hoping to have girls engaged as half-time heroes, mascots, flag-bearers and ball girls.
“You name it, we’ll have girls out on the pitch enjoying opportunities that they don’t normally have.”
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