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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-09-26 Daily Xml
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FINNISS FOOTBALL FINALS

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:15): In a similar sporting vein, and also following along on football, I would like to turn my attention to the football finals in my electorate, in both the Great Southern Football League and the Kangaroo Island League—and I will not forget the contribution the netball fraternity makes either.

Last Saturday, the mighty Encounter Bay A-grade Eagles, under coach of the year Billy Neely, won the grand final, and they beat Willunga by 11 points, coming from behind in the last quarter to overtake and beat Willunga on Willunga Oval—there is nothing like beating another team on their own ground. Unfortunately, I could not be there that day; I was there the week before, when they won the preliminary final against Strathalbyn at Mount Compass, and led all day.

Last week was certainly great for Encounter Bay Football Club and the south-coast district. It took 17 years and a huge amount of hard work. Billy Neely certainly put in an enormous effort over the last couple of seasons to get the A-grade to where it was. Unfortunately, the B-grade got put out the week before, but there was some outstanding play of football. I have been reading the report in the Victor Harbor Times and picking up on that. So, it was terrific for them to win.

Certainly from looking at social media and the newsprint this week, I think they have celebrated in style, and I suspect they will probably still be having training for the next couple of weeks, regardless of the fact that football is over.

However, let me also say that the Victor Harbor Senior Colts won the grand final, which was good, as did the Victor Harbor Junior Colts, in the Great Southern Football League (for the fourth year in a row, I might add). That was a magnificent achievement by them, and the Victor Harbor area certainly came out pretty well in the finals of the football. I guess being the biggest town in the region they obviously have more to drawn on, and that helps, but it was outstanding.

I would like to pay tribute to the president of Encounter Bay, Richard Littley and his team, and the people around him for the great support and great work they do. I am a proud sponsor of Encounter Bay, and I was very happy to get the news—I got a couple of reports during the afternoon.

The week before, the Kangaroo Island Football League held their grand finals. Once again, a small group of people put this together, and in particular I mention president of the Kangaroo Island Football League, Heath Gurney, and the secretary, Tony Nolan. I also meant to mention Great Southern's president, Gordon Tonkin, and secretary, Kevin Curran. KI Football League works very hard to keep football alive and well and to provide outlets for youth on the island in difficult circumstances.

On the island, the Parndana A-grade won the final—o woe, o bliss—for the sixth year in a row, despite the best efforts of everyone to knock them off. They came through again, and it is a credit to that club that they did win. In the B-grade, the Western Districts Football Club Bs won; it is worth noting that the Western Districts club works very hard to keep going and to fill teams every week in fairly strenuous circumstances. The impact of the blue gums on the west end of the island has been dramatic on the population, yet their B-grade came through and knocked off their archrivals, Parndana. So, I imagine they are probably still celebrating as well out on the west end.

In the Colts, the Wisanger Football Club, of which I am the No. 1 ticket holder—I am also patron of the KI league—won for the fourth time in a row; I stand to be corrected, as it may be the third. The male medal winner in the Great Southern Football League was Ian Perrie, who put on a phenomenal year; he is just an absolute workhorse and a fantastic role model for footballers across the Fleurieu. On Kangaroo Island, the medal winner was a young footballer from the Kingscote Football Club, Zac Edwards. They both thoroughly deserved their wins.

Football is an enormous part of culture in country South Australia and goes along with netball as being absolutely critical to providing outlets for the youth of the districts to have good, clean entertainment and activities on Saturday afternoons mainly, along with other sports. I guess Australian Rules Football and netball are seriously the biggest sports in my electorate by a long way. I wish them well for their efforts and look forward to country football resuming again next year.

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