04/09/2026
The wait is over.
The Wollongong Wolves now know the clubs standing between them and a place in the knockout stages of the 2026 Australian Championship.
When the draw was made, the Wolves were placed in Group D, alongside Victorian Foundation Club Preston Lions, Queensland representatives Lions FC and Tasmania's South Hobart.
It is a group that perfectly captures what the Australian Championship was created to be.
Three states. Four proud football clubs. Thousands of kilometres of potential travel. Different football cultures, different histories and, for the Wolves and their supporters, the opportunity to take the Pride of New South Wales onto a genuinely national stage.
For Wollongong Wolves, the Australian Championship represents more than simply another competition.
It is an opportunity to represent the Illawarra in a competition bringing together some of the most historic and ambitious clubs in Australian football.
THE ROAD AHEAD
The Wolves' Group D campaign will take them into competition with clubs from three different states.
There is Melbourne and the long-established Preston Lions.
There is Brisbane and one of Queensland's strongest football names, Lions FC.
And then there is Hobart, with South Hobart bringing Tasmania into what promises to be one of the most geographically diverse groups in the competition.
For Wolves supporters, the draw immediately creates three potential football adventures beyond the Illawarra.
The Australian Championship was designed to bring historic and ambitious clubs from across the country together, and Group D demonstrates exactly what that means.
The Wolves could soon find themselves travelling south to Victoria, north to Queensland and across Bass Strait to Tasmania.
For a club whose history includes some of Australian football's biggest stages, it is another chapter in a national story.
