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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-16 Daily Xml
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Kilburn Football and Cricket Club

Ms MICHAELS (Enfield) (15:29): I rise today to speak about one of my local sporting clubs that has faced significant challenges in recent times, and I want to recognise to the hard work put in by its leadership team and its board. I am talking about the Kilburn Football and Cricket Club, which has a long and rich history in the Enfield electorate.

When the suburb of Kilburn was originally formed, it was known as Chicago, and the Chicago football club was formed in 1924. The suburb's name changed to Kilburn and the club followed suit in 1933; however, we still have the Chics football team today. The club was originally based at the Islington railway yard and won its first premiership in 1928. It played at this location with the Kilburn cricket club for some time but was forced to move in 1952. It had a few years in the wilderness before it found its present home at the Blair Athol Reserve, where it has been for the past 62 years.

The football and cricket clubs amalgamated in 1974 to become the entity we know now. The football club has had some success over this period of time. In 2001, it won the Division 1 A-grade premiership, and in lower divisions it has won in 2011, 2012 and 2015. The cricket club has gone really well. In the past year, it has fielded two teams: a two-day and a one-day team. As has been reported in the press, it has faced significant financial challenges, and this came to a head last Tuesday at a City of Port Adelaide Enfield council meeting.

At that meeting, councillors decided to grant the club an extension of 12 months on the lease at the Blair Athol Reserve. I want to thank the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council for working closely with the club to get it into that position. I especially want to acknowledge the hard work put in by the board and its supporters, none more so than club president, Dale Agius, who has worked tirelessly over the past few months to get the club to the position it is in.

I look forward to the club going from strength to strength in the next 12 months, especially as it is so rich in its diversity. Kilburn and Blair Athol have obviously changed tremendously in the past five to 10 years. The cricket team now mostly comprises players from Afghani and Pakistani backgrounds. The club has been enriched by the addition of the Ghan Kilburn City Soccer Club, led quite ably by Rahim Shah Zaidi, and I also want to acknowledge his efforts in helping the club in recent times.

I look forward to the club implementing the plans it put to the council last week, including the future plans to turn the restaurant and function area into a vibrant Afghani cuisine restaurant. The club also plans to invigorate junior football by appointing Andrew Graham as the Junior Football Coordinator. Andrew is going to see an exciting new Auskick program and hopefully have two under-eight boys' and girls' teams next year. Women's football is increasingly popular and I understand the club has plans to commence a women's team in 2020 as well, and I certainly look forward to that.

The diversity of the club is something that we need to hold dear, and I hope the club is successful in that, with those I fondly refer to as the 'old timers' there, such as Phil Martin, Rod Blue and many others, mixing with the soccer teams and the Pakistani and Afghani cricket players. The football club also has a strong presence of Indigenous players, and they are very proud of that, and they do really well.

I hope that Dale and his team go forward with these plans and make a success of it. I hope that the club goes from strength to strength in the next 12 months, and I certainly hope that I am there with the club to celebrate its centenary in 2024.

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