East Torrens Baseball Club

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley) (15:19): I rise today to wish the East Torrens Baseball Club all the very best for their 100-year celebrations. It is an absolutely amazing feat to reach 100 years. It is an absolutely exceptional club. I want to thank all the sponsors, the volunteers, the players past and present, and the friends and family who have supported those players. It is an extraordinary effort in reaching 100 years. The club has achieved amazing success during those 100 years and has even had players represent minor and also major league clubs. It was a tremendous weekend that we celebrated just recently in November.

The East Torrens Baseball Club is better known as the Redsox and it is located in the electorate of Hartley at the moment. It celebrated 100 years as a club on the weekend of 4 November. Many celebrations were held in Felixstow and also surrounding areas. There was a gala dinner that was held on the Friday night at San Giorgio club in Payneham. There was a historic display and a 100-year division 1 game which I attended with my young son, Leonardo, who is now two. He is very fond of baseball already. There was also a Hawaiian family night, special interviews with past and present players, and the opening of a memorabilia exhibition.

The weekend was embraced by past and present players, families and the wider community. There were amazing scenes where we saw three generations, sometimes more, of club members with seniors and juniors also in historic uniforms. In 2023, the Redsox won the South Australian Club of the Year at the 2022 Good Sports Awards. I do want to take this opportunity to thank all the administrators at the club—President Damien Norsworthy, along with the 100-year steering committee of Jared King, John King, Paul Chandler and Angela Probert—for organising what was a truly wonderful weekend.

The East Torrens Baseball Club is a club of family, junior development and senior social baseball, and is also a really loyal place. I would also like to give a big shout-out to Glenn Simmons who this year played his 800^th game—800 games is just phenomenal. What an extraordinary feat that is.

As I speak about another club, obviously as a courtesy I will not be further contributing to the uni bill with my registered interest and also residing in Magill. I will move on to another sport, which is hockey. Hockey has certainly expressed a desire in the past to be able to utilise grounds if they do come up down the track. That allows me to segue into hockey and some recent achievements in the hockey sector.

I would like to congratulate two South Australian representatives who have been selected in Australia's Under 21 Women's Team, the Jillaroos, for the upcoming FIH Hockey Junior Women's World Cup in Chile later this month. What an amazing achievement for Katie Sharkey from the Seacliff Hockey Club and Lucy Sharman from the Dartmoor Hockey Club and Riddoch Strikers down in the south. Katie and Lucy are also firing up this season in the Hockey One League with Adelaide Fire and they have showcased on the national stage how they earned their spots on the international stage.

It was fantastic recently to watch the Hockeyroos play against India. It is a huge feat to host that game here for South Australia in May at the State Hockey Centre. I would like to wish Katie and Lucy all the best for their World Cup campaign representing the Jillaroos, and also cannot wait to watch them in the near future playing for the Hockeyroos.

In the remaining time, I might also talk about a giant of soccer, of the football community, who we have just lost here in the Campbelltown area. Vale to Giuseppe (Joe) Natale. The board life members and members of Campbelltown City Soccer Club, all of us, extend our heartfelt condolences to the Natale family on the passing of Giuseppe (Joe) Natale.

Joe Natale was born on 1 January 1927 in the town of Sulmona in the Abruzzo province of central Italy. He migrated in the early 1950s and lived locally in the morning shadow of the beautiful Black Hill of the Mount Lofty Ranges, which continues to overlook his beloved Campbelltown City Soccer Club. He was instrumental in floating the idea of establishing a football or a soccer club. I would like to acknowledge his outstanding service as a coach, as a player, as an administrator and as a supporter. Vale Guiseppe (Joe) Natale. May he rest in peace.