A-League team Melbourne City FC were enjoying the sunshine in Maitland on Wednesday after a wet start to their five-week stay in the Hunter.
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Melbourne City are using the Maitland Sportsground as their training base and have accommodation at Lovedale as they prepare for their three remaining fixtures and the A-League finals series.
The three Melbourne teams completed the mandatory NSW Health quarantine period in Sydney and City headed to the Hunter on the weekend with their first training session on Sunday.
The club was full of praise for the Maitland Sportsground facilities and thanked Maitland City Council for their support.
The Maitland Pickers' President's Cup team will continued to train at the sportsground. Reserve, open, under-19s, women's Blues Tag, under-17 and two under-16 teams have had to find alternative venues for training.
The club's scheduled fixtures in the President's Cup and Newcastle RL will go ahead as planned.
Maitland Pickers coach Matt Lantry said given the circumstances the club supported the move for Maitland City Council to allow Melbourne City to use Maitland Sportsground as their training base for the remainder of the A-League season.
"We have a great relationship with council and they have been very good in ensuring the ground will be available for games and training for our top squad," Lantry said.
"I think it was important that the facility was made available to enable Melbourne City to prepare for the remainder of what is a national competition.
"I think going forward it could open up opportunities for the club to come back and potentially play trial games here, which would be fantastic for the city.
"Given the circumstances of this year, I think everyone needs to be as accommodating as they possibly can and we're happy to play our part in ensuring the A-League competition could be completed."
Melbourne City kick off the remainder of their campaign against Sydney City at ANZ Stadium on Saturday. They then face