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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-03-05 Daily Xml
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SOUTH ADELAIDE FOOTBALL CLUB

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (16:30): It is the first week of March, which is always a wonderful time to be a supporter of the South Adelaide Football Club. Each year our hearts are filled with so much hope that this will be our season to break the long-running drought of SANFL premierships. This year we live in hope that our saviour will be Jack Cahill, who at 67 has come back into the fold as an SANFL coach. He started out with the Panthers in the under 17s back in 1957. We hope that, after so many years of missing out on making the grand final and taking the flag, we can do it this year. I was there in 1979 when South Adelaide was last in a grand final and they got kicked off the park when Port Adelaide had the win—

The Hon. J.W. Weatherill: I was there.

Mr BIGNELL: I was at that game too, and it was a fairly one-sided game, because the wind seemed to be with Port Adelaide for three of the four quarters.

As I said, we live in hope that things will change and that we will be successful in 2008 at South Adelaide. Jason Torney (from the Adelaide Crows) has joined the Panthers line-up this year along with Travis Beard (from the Western Bulldogs), Mitchell Sandery (from Norwood), Myke Cook and Andy Otten (both from the Adelaide Crows), Marcus Burdett (from Mount Compass) and Justin Wilson (from Morningside). Here's hoping, with Jack back, that we can have some success and, in those immortal words of the Premier: Go Panthers!

I wish the other footy clubs in my electorate the very best of luck. The Morphett Vale Emus have taken the flag for the past three years, and I have been happy that my son has been out there as a player in their grade 2 and 3 team and, last year, in their grade 4 and 5 side. It is a fantastic club which has taken its players through the junior ranks right up to the A grade. As I said, they have won three flags in a row and the feeling around that club is fantastic.

Just down the road the Hackham Hawks—a club I support and for which I have just signed a cheque as one of their major sponsors this year—have not done so well in recent years. Some very big scores have been kicked against them, so they have been at the opposite end of the table to the Emus. They have a new board this year, and they have been very fortunate that one of their supporters won something like $12 million in X-Lotto, so he has pumped some money into the club. They have a new coach and some new players, so let us hope the Hackham Hawks can be a team to contend with in the league this year.

Further south, Willunga is the team to beat. They have been pretty much unbeatable for the past three years, even though Langhorne Creek went out and bought a heap of pretty good players last year and they were the fancied tip to take out the flag but, once again, Willunga was too good for them on the day in the grand final. Well done to Willunga, and I wish them all the very best, as I do the McLaren Eagles—another team in the electorate of Mawson, which will be up against Willunga. They are also a very good team. I think one of the great things about going to see McLaren Eagles games is that it is that real, old-fashioned country footy. Joe Petrucci and some of the local growers invite you around to the back of the steak sandwich van. They always have a good bottle of McLaren Vale red, and you sit there on a cold winter's day and see the likes of Tony Modra play against the Eagles. It really is a fantastic way to see the footy, and you can get out onto the park at quarter time and half time to have a kick with your son.

I think it is one of the great things about our great game of Australian football. To anyone who is getting a bit sick of the big end of town and the million-dollar corporate AFL level of football, I advise you that there would be plenty of worse ways to fill in your weekend than to head down to McLaren Vale, maybe tour a few wineries, and then pull up your car next to the fence and toot on your favourite team in the local league.

Motion carried.


At 16:35 the house adjourned until Thursday 6 March 2008 at 10:30.


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