Kaurna Electorate Football Clubs

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (15:32): I rise today to talk about the world game of football in the electorate of Kaurna, otherwise known as soccer. For AFL-inclined people such as myself, we call it soccer, but for most people, particularly the many people in my electorate who have moved from the United Kingdom to live in the southern suburbs—this is shared, I think, by the members for Reynell and Bright, with many Brits moving in—

Mr Hughes: Whyalla.

Mr PICTON: And Whyalla.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: And Florey!

Ms Vlahos: Taylor.

Mr PICTON: Everywhere, pretty much, across South Australia—they regard this as football.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Okay, so it's soccer; let's go.

Mr PICTON: We're settled. What has struck me is the increase in popularity of soccer across the two clubs that I have in my electorate, which I would briefly like to speak about today. Firstly, we have the Seaford Rangers Football Club, which has been around since the early 1970s. It is a very strong club, with over 300 members, is home to 12 junior teams, and it also hosts, in the associated social club, four darts teams and two eight-ball teams within the facilities as well.

The Seaford Rangers are a very strong club. They have recently expanded to include a Summer Sevens season as well, which was very popular with young children. That was supported by a grant from the Active Club Program to help them buy the facilities and uniforms for the children to play in during the Summer Sevens season, but they have some issues in terms of the need for an upgrade at their club. They have very outdated and cramped facilities, and, very importantly, they need to provide, in the future, for women to play soccer, and they need appropriate change rooms to enable that to happen, which do not exist at the moment.

I am working with them and raising their case with both the local council and the state government. I am hoping that, by the time of the next Active Club state grants, the council will be supporting them for an upgrade to their facilities, particularly to ensure that women's teams can play at the Seaford club.

I would like to thank some of the people at Seaford Rangers, particularly Cheryl Sawtell, Greg Wraight, Terry Wraight and Raul Carozo, who work very hard to ensure that that club works very hard. I thank them very much for making me their number one ticketholder for the club this year. I was very pleased to attend recently and be presented with the very large number one ticket. They made me kick a soccer ball, which was embarrassing for all.

Mr Odenwalder: A football.

Mr PICTON: A football. My performance was not too bad, but I certainly will not be making the team. The other team I would like to highlight for the house today is the Aldinga Sharks football club or Aldinga Sharks soccer club.

Mr Duluk: Very successful club.

Mr PICTON: Very successful in a very short time. This is only their second season. They have started up from nothing. There was once an Aldinga soccer club, but they folded some decades ago, so this has been a complete restart of the club. It has gone from zero to being quite a successful club in such a short time, which I think has shown what an unmet need there was in the Aldinga area which, as members would know, is growing very rapidly with new houses being built all the time.

I would like to acknowledge some of the first people who worked very hard on the committee of that club to establish it, particularly Mick Treen, Darren Rathband, Kevin Pinchback, Wayne Ward and Andy Gray. They have all put in a tremendous effort to get that club up and running, and they have faced a number of obstacles, not least of which is that there actually is not a soccer pitch in Aldinga, so playing soccer in Aldinga as a club is quite difficult.

For the first year they were lucky enough that the Aldinga Football (AFL) Club were happy enough to lend them use of Shark Park at Aldinga on Sundays, but we found that the seven-day-a-week use of that oval was quite difficult for the turf and it ended up in pretty bad condition by the end of the year. This year, they have been lucky in that the Aldinga Beach B-7 school have allowed them to use their oval to play soccer games as well, which has been tremendously helpful and is a great sign of schools going out into the community and allowing use of those facilities across the whole weekend.

I will be leaving no stone unturned in terms of helping them to get a soccer pitch in Aldinga. I am constantly hassling the council and raising this with the government as well, that we need to get a soccer pitch at Aldinga so the Sharks have a proper home to play at.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Flinders, I am sure everyone in the house wishes the Matildas all the very best for their game with Sweden. The member for Flinders.