House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-10-30 Daily Xml

Contents

SALISBURY FOOTBALL CLUB

Ms BETTISON (Ramsay) (16:12): It was a beautiful sunny morning for the inaugural Salisbury Football Club Community Fun Day on Sunday 23 September 2012. I was delighted to be invited to join members and their families for the end-of-year presentations and to stay on for the Community Fun Day. It was the under 6s that I had the opportunity to congratulate for their enthusiasm during their first year of football. With their proud parents and grandparents looking on, the boys took the three steps up to the stage with excitement mixed with nervousness. It was at this point, I must admit, that we had a bit of a dropping of one of the trophies, and I give my apologies to those young boys. For each of the players, we stopped for a quick photo with the trophy and certificate, and a free soft drink and sausage after the presentation.

Salisbury Football Club was established in 1880. It is one of the oldest clubs in the northern suburbs. The Magpies are proud of their past and confident of their future. They wear their black and white colours with pride. Salisbury Football Club aims to be the most successful family orientated and professional amateur league club in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. They are committed to providing opportunities to people of all ages and a safe and family orientated environment in which they can encourage people to enjoy a lifetime of involvement in Aussie Rules. The club is working hard to engage young boys and a few girls into playing Aussie Rules. This season they fielded under 6, under 10, under 13, under 14, under 15 and under 16 teams in their junior competition.

The Community Fun Day was held to bring the Salisbury community together to raise awareness of what Salisbury has to offer. Along with some fantastic rides, jumping castle and big slides, there was face painting and a 'dunk the coach' target game. I was pleased to see the traditional clown and darts sideshows were also in attendance. After I had spent a session helping out on the barbecue, where the most often asked question was 'do you want onions with your sausage?', I had the opportunity to spend some time talking with the stallholders. Neighbourhood Watch, the Returned Services League and the Navy recruits joined in the Fun Day with stalls around the oval. Unfortunately we had a shower or two but the Community Fun Day finale was a very exciting display of fireworks.

Like all of our sporting clubs, they cannot exist without the support of volunteers who work tirelessly to assist the players in training and coaching, game management, first aid, timekeeping, and not to forget the person who washes the jumpers—very dirty jumpers—week in, week out. I particularly want to thank Judy Hill, the secretary of the club; Steve Ireland, the treasurer; and David Ward, the president. I also wish to thank the sponsors of Salisbury Football Club: the Mawson Lakes Hotel, Advanced Linemarking Services, Northside Wholesale Quality Cars, and Sportspower Salisbury.

While on the topic of sport I would also like to talk about the Salisbury East Little Athletics, who on Sunday 13 October had their opening session for the season, and they were very excited this year to hit a record amount of 200 registered players. People can participate in little athletics from the age of three to 16. We have had some excitement at the club with a new uniform—a beautiful blue and green—and, once again, we have a very active volunteer group. I would like to pay attention to Tim Warnes, the president, and Jenny Dasie, the secretary. Also thanks to Sportspower, their major sponsor, McDonald Salisbury and A&J Kennedy Plumbing.

While on the theme of sports, I also wanted to draw attention to the Salisbury council and their recent Growing for Gold scheme introduced during the school holidays. It enables children from the age of three to 16 to participate in their local community, with 20 per cent of participants going on to join their local clubs. We were fortunate to have 18 sports in the Salisbury area that children were able to participate in. The Salisbury council is very active in engaging local community in sport and is encouraged to limit the barriers of entry for people to enjoy sport in their community.