Women's Sport

Mr WINGARD (Mitchell) (15:26): Thank you, Deputy Speaker. It is great to see you back in the chamber and great to have you here. I rise today to speak on women's sport of course in the wake of the Adelaide Crows' wonderful win in the AFLW over the weekend; everyone is talking about it. I would also like to congratulate Erin Phillips and of course coach, Bec Goddard—Erin for winning all her awards, including the best on ground in the grand final and the best player in the league. Coincidently, in a previous life I had a job coaching young kids' football and I coached Erin's older sister in an Auskick clinic and she was also an outstanding player.

It was a great privilege to hear Erin's story, to see the great things she has done, to have seen her sister play, as she was also a very handy footballer at the age of 12 or 13, and to know that if Erin had had the opportunity to go on and play we could sit here and think about how many great and wonderful things she would have done. Starting her AFLW career at the age of 31, she really has eclipsed all. I have written to the AFL and I hope I get support from the other side of the house in asking the AFL to consider naming the best on ground medal for the AFLW Grand Final in honour of Erin Phillips. I think naming it after her would be very fitting.

Last night, I went to the SANFL best and fairest awards and congratulations to Courtney Gum from Glenelg Football Club, who took out that award, polling three votes in every game and one vote in one game, so that was a great achievement. North Adelaide and Norwood play off this Saturday in the grand final of the SANFL women's competition. It was also interesting to see the Premier jump into the photo, photobomb if you like, or just perhaps try to get his mug on.

He looked a bit panicked when he jumped in there with the team. I am not sure how he thought he was associated with the team, but he chose to do that with his Crows scarf on, even though we know that he is a Port Adelaide supporter. As I said, he looked a bit panicked. I wonder why he is jumping on the bandwagon of the high-profile sports and not other sports I would like to speak about now, one of which is futsal.

For those who do not know much about futsal, it is a very interesting game. It is an indoor variant on soccer and played with a slightly smaller ball on a hard floor surface, with five players per team, including the goalkeeper. At the recent national championships held in Adelaide, South Australia's women's team took out both first and second place. South Australian player, Abbey Flight, was also named the tournament's most valuable player. Another South Australian player, Victoria Mansueto, was awarded the Golden Boot Trophy.

From the tournament, 18 girls were selected to complete in the Australian team at the Futsal World Cup. They were named in the squad for Barcelona. From South Australia, they are: Sarah Chappel, Matilda Comley, Victoria Mansueto, Meleri Mullan, Roxy Dodd, Abbey Flight, Alyce Macauley and Rebecca Pratt. Congratulations to all those girls who went off to play in Barcelona.

The other sport I would like to talk about is croquet. The Marion Croquet Club is in my local area. It is a sport that is doing a great job attracting more women to it. I also have the Brighton Croquet Club in my area, which is part of the Brighton Oval complex, which is incorporated with the Brighton Football Club, the rugby club and the lacrosse club. Unfortunately, the facilities at some of those clubs are very run down and in need of repair. We are doing what we can to work on that to try to improve those facilities. We call on the government to come on board to help out.

I was recently contacted by the Marion Croquet Club's secretary, Glenna Bulley. Glenna has led the way for women in sport as the first female member of the Glenelg Football Club back in the eighties. That was at about the time that I played there, and I remember Glenna from back in those days. She is a wonderful person and an integral part of the Glenelg Football Club community who is often at the Bay oval. She is also leading the charge for the Marion Croquet Club located at the Marion Sports and Community Club complex.

As far as I know, the Marion Croquet Club is the only croquet club in Adelaide that is accessible to visually impaired people and physically disabled people. With only 14 women members at the moment, Glenna is facing an uphill battle to raise funds to upgrade the lawns. Croquet is a great sport for keeping the body active, the mind working and having a great time socialising. If you get down and have a chat with Glenna, you will have a great time socialising with her.

I would also like to mention the Brighton club and its president, Barry Teague, and Anne Woodhouse and Jackie Sutherland, who do a wonderful job. Along with Glenna at the Marion Croquet Club, the club president, Pauline Evans, does a wonderful job as well. I hope that maybe the Premier might want to visit. He was very quick to jump in the photo with the AWFL Crows team after they won the grand final. Maybe we can get the Premier to come down to have a chat with the futsal girls and also come to the Marion Croquet Club to have a photo with Glenna and the team and maybe help by giving them some support. We look forward to seeing him there.