Gaza Sports and Community Club

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:37): It is like a sporting afternoon. Today, I want to highlight an incredible sporting club in my electorate of Torrens, a club that has a long history dating back to the early 1900s, the Gaza Sports and Community Club. It is a club that in recent times has had its fair share of heartache, frustration and separation but has bonded together during these difficult times and has risen, you could say, like a phoenix from the ashes against all odds.

Together, volunteers have worked tirelessly for the benefit of local families, players, junior and senior officials and supporters. The club has an amazing committee leadership team of volunteers, which consists mostly of women and is led by the amazing club president Natasha Jenke, assisted by chairperson Domenique Downie, Kim Thomas in administration, vice president Chris Cooke, and deputy vice president Brad Dohrmann. Their hard work and incredible commitment to ensure Gaza's success into the future is a credit to them all. Of course, they did not do it on their own, but with all the supporters of the club.

Last week, I had the absolute pleasure of being one of the many supporters, as the Gaza Football Club B-grade team played their way into the grand final. This coming weekend, when they run out onto the field in the blue and yellow guernseys, supporters will again be full of pride.

The club, which has three dart teams this season, had to install two extra dartboards to accommodate extra teams playing. They have a T20 men's cricket team, two senior men's cricket teams, a women's cricket team, an under-10s junior cricket team, an under-12s junior cricket team and a Master Blast cricket program. Last year, was a very successful year.

A leader in the Gaza cricket community, Kelly Nesbit is driving women's growth and juniors and the club has four cricketers representing South Australia in the over-40 SACA competition in Perth in November this year.

It has also fielded two junior footy teams, growing to three teams in 2026, and three senior football teams. It has hosted a successful Auskick program, and I am delighted to say that I am now seeing people from juniors, in particular, from our multicultural community, participating in Aussie Rules. They have also hosted sessions for members on education around DV and gender equality.

Sponsors play an important part in our sporting clubs and I want to acknowledge and thank them all for their valuable contribution. I want to mention a sponsor who, during difficult times, really supported the club and helped keep the doors open, and that was Rachel Lawrie from Stadium Real Estate.

I am proud to have advocated for an election commitment for the Gaza Sports and Community Club that will benefit the community, including girls and women's participation in sport in our local area. I am particularly looking forward to seeing the positive outcomes through association with some of our professional female sports stars and the confidence that will follow from special skills training, including football, cricket and netball refereeing and coaching. It should flow on that the improvements to infrastructure, including the change rooms, will ultimately benefit the whole Gaza community from a wellbeing, physical and social perspective.

I want to mention now the team playing in the premiership this weekend, and hopefully they will be able to bring home the holy grail. Coach Jed Greer, assistant coach Russell Bach, team manager Terri Crosnier, timekeeper Wayne Hammond, runner Brad Dohrmann and medical and water official Georgia Greer.

The players are Nathon Merritt, Jake Hennessy, Braden Maynard, Jack Stanton, Hayden Smith, Jordan Blackley, Angus Jenke, Baylin Jenke, Tyler Slater, Scott Weger, Sam Fuller, Aden Knowles, Nick Howard, Bradley Tudorovic, Spyro Dinedios, Rhys Jones, Jack Sandland, Lachlan DeMusso, Kody Prettejohn, Mitchell Ramsey, Patrick Hancock and Brad Smith. I want to give them my very best wishes to bring home the holy grail this weekend.