Wright Electorate

Mr BOYER (Wright) (15:41): I rise this afternoon to put on the record my congratulations to the Modbury (Hawks) Football Club. On Friday of last week, I had the pleasure of attending the annual presentation night at Sfera’s. Where else but Sfera’s, of course? Many of us in this chamber spend a lot of time there at different events, award nights and school presentation nights, and we were all there again together on Friday night to congratulate the individual award winners from the Modbury (Hawks) Football Club. Also very importantly, I mention—and I will touch upon this in a little more detail in a second—the women's football team, who were the premiers.

Ms Bedford: Hear, hear!

Mr BOYER: Exactly—hear, hear, indeed! Many people do not know that the Modbury (Hawks) Football Club, which was founded in I think 1862, is actually the oldest football club in South Australia and the sixth oldest in the country, which is pretty remarkable. I am told that the first game that the Modbury Football Club played was on an oval that is very close to where Civic Park is located now. The member for Florey is nodding her head, which makes me think I have that right, which is good.

The club certainly has a very rich history, as you can imagine for a club that has been around for so long. It is immensely respected in the north-east. I think testament to that is the number of elected members of both council and state and federal parliament who attend any event the Hawks put on, and that was the certainly the case on Friday night, and I would just like to make mention of some of the attendees.

The Leader of the Opposition was there; the member for Florey; Tony Zappia, the member Makin; Councillor Damian Wyld from the Tea Tree Gully council; and Councillor Olivia Savvas from the Tea Tree Gully council. The member for Florey has reminded me that Councillor Lyn Petrie was there as well. Of course, Councillor Oliva Saavas is our candidate for the seat of Newland, and I should not forget that the indomitable Rhiannon Pearce, Labor's candidate for King, was there as well.

The night kicked off going through medal counts for the various divisions, and I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate some of the Best and Fairest winners: in D-grade we had Ben Finch; in C-grade, Jack Sutton; in B-grade, Matthew Smith; and in A-grade, Tim Davey, and I would like to speak a little about Tim again in a moment. The winner of the women's Best and Fairest, keeping in mind it was a premiership winning team, was Emily Page.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the sponsors of the club of which there are many. I am not going to name them all, but I think that one in particular deserves very special mention and that is Peter Lempens, who told me he has been involved with the Modbury Football Club basically his whole life. He manages the Mazda and Volkswagen dealership in Mawson Lakes, which is an extremely successful dealership; not only that, he is a very, very generous sponsor of the club.

In fact, the winner of the A-grade Best and Fairest for the last couple of years has had the pleasure of driving a brand-new Volkswagen Amarok thanks to Mawson Lakes Volkswagen. The winner this year, for a record eighth time, was Tim Davey. Given that the Amarok has only been given as a prize for the last two or three years, the only person who has driven it is Tim, but he is indeed a very fortunate person. Tim is a legend of the club. The award he wins for A-grade Best and Fairest is named after the Jolly family who are also stalwarts and pioneers of the club.

Tim gave a very emotional speech, which is worthy of its own acknowledgement. His father passed away during the season. His father never missed a game and was always standing on the hill at the footy ground watching him. Tim spoke really emotionally about how much he loves the club, what a huge part of his childhood it had been and also what an emotional year it was for him playing in A-grade in a year that was not particularly successful for the team but successful for Tim individually. But looking up to the hill and not seeing his dad there, I saw a number of people with tears in their eyes. I felt very emotional about it, always having had my dad come along and join me for quarter time, half-time and three-quarter time huddles.

One thing I would like to mention in the time remaining to me is the announcement that the opposition made, in particular Peter Malinauskas, who had the honour of getting up and saying if he is elected Premier next year we are going to put $2.5 million towards the master plan that has been drawn up by the club. It is long overdue. This is a club that has grown and deserves some new facilities. It was wonderful to be there to see the excitement on the faces of those club members, past and present, when we announced it. I dearly hope that this time next year we get the chance to make it a reality.