SOCCER

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:52): There was an interjection there that that was a good speech, and it was. I congratulate the member for Unley on that quite moving grievance. As most of us know, tonight the Australian soccer team, the Socceroos, will be playing what will hopefully be their final qualifier for next year's World Cup. They are playing Iraq in Sydney and, unfortunately, I cannot be there and, as it turns out, I have it on good authority that I may not be able to watch it because we are sitting late, but I will try to find a way.

So it seems timely to talk a bit today about where it all starts. I have spoken quite a lot in this place about soccer, and particularly junior soccer in my area. Soccer is particularly strong in the northern suburbs, and I know in the western suburbs, too. I have been involved in a peripheral way with junior soccer in my community for the last 10 years and I have seen firsthand, of course, what it can mean for a young child. My own son, Jimmy, for the last eight years has been involved in junior soccer, first at Elizabeth Vale, then at Elizabeth Downs and Munno Para, with the Elizabeth and Districts Junior Soccer Association, and then moving on to federation clubs.

I have also seen the hours and hours of pure volunteer work that goes into making kids' soccer possible. It does not just happen. There are coaches who work two nights a week for a couple of hours every night. They come out extra early on Sundays and, in some cases, hang around all day. There are also the referees, the managers and all the canteen workers, and I have seen this week in and week out, particularly at the Para Hills Soccer Club where Jimmy now plays.

On Saturday night it was my extreme pleasure to take up an invitation from Ms Wendy Stewart and John Baumann from the Elizabeth and Districts Junior Soccer Association to attend their 50^th year celebrations. They started in 1963, obviously, since this was the 50^th year celebrations, and I was invited along as a guest of honour to talk a bit about the association and to listen to some of the people who have helped the association along the way.

I was particularly there to honour four people who have played huge roles in the association and give them awards. There was John Hadnuk, who is the father of someone I went to school with, so I enjoyed catching up with him. He has given 40 years of service to the Elizabeth and Districts Junior Soccer Association, mostly as general secretary and registrar, but also in various other roles. I also gave an award to Mr Frank Taylor, who has given 30 years of this time as a ground marshal, as the chairman, and as the league secretary in the association. He was league secretary from 1997 to 2013.

I also gave an award to Terry Baker, who is the most recent treasurer. He served in that role for 20 years, and before that he was chairman, and before that the vice-chairman. Lastly, I gave an award for the service of Mr John Allen, who has given 36 years of his life to the association. I should add that most of these people have also played roles in their own various clubs either as referees or as coaches, and all those sorts of things. John Allen was general secretary from 1993 to the present, 2013.

It was really good to be able to have that opportunity and to touch base with all the other clubs that went along. It covers a large area, not just my area. It covers most of the north-east; it goes right up into Gawler and out towards the west. I had a long chat with John Allen afterwards, mostly about the politics of kids' soccer, which most of us probably could not handle. It is a very political business and he revels in it; he loves it, as some of us do. Lastly, it was really good to catch up with Peter Watson, who I used to work with at Elizabeth Police Station. He is the secretary, I think, or the president, of the local referees association. He has done that for a number of years, so it was really good to sit at table 1 with him and all the other award winners.