Warrnambool secures rights to host Hockey 5s Junior State Championships in 2024 and 2025

After lengthy discussions with peak body Hockey Victoria, Hockey South West president Paul Dillon said he was delighted to secure the "prestigious" event which would attract more than 1000 juniors boys and girls players, coaches, officials, parents and supporters.

"It's massive, it's great coming out of COVID with two years of disruptions with community sport," he said.

"It's good to be able to bounce back with numbers, but then to try new things and innovate and get great feedback from our peak bodies and then to be rewarded is excellent.

"It's exciting for our members to look forward to the event. There will be a lot of people come to the region. For me, it's a really nice step for community sport to have a marquee event and to attract that to south-west Victoria will have plenty of impacts going forward for the town.

"It's a nice thing to grab with both hands after a fair bit of hard work by the committee in the past year."

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Dillon said hosting the championships would be subject to facilities being up to scratch and with the bigger picture in mind.

"We want to improve our facilities so we can host big events and to attract Commonwealth Games participants in 2026," he said.

"Hockey Australia and Hockey Victoria want to bring it to Warrnambool, council wants to bring it to Warrnambool. But the infrastructure is ageing, our pavilion is 40 years old, our pitch is 15 years old so there's work to do to upgrade our facilities so we can larger events, but elite events.

"If we want international teams here in 2026, they can't be using the pavilion they are today."

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