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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-09-24 Daily Xml
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Glenunga Football Club

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (15:21): I rise to update the house on what a terrible weekend I have had when it comes to football. Three days of footy matches, three losses, starting on Friday night with Port Power, which was devastating. There was Sunday with the SANFL Grand Final where Norwood went down, and, devastatingly, on Saturday I attended the Adelaide Footy League grand finals where the Glenunga Football Club Div 1 and the reserves played and both went down.

I do want to take a moment to celebrate the success of the Glenunga Rams throughout this season, which celebrated their 70th anniversary in 2024 and have grown into a really important part of our local community and one of the largest grassroots sporting clubs in all of South Australia. It is not only an amazing place for kids to go and learn how to play footy and be with their mates—including about 200 girls in the program, I might add, one of the fastest growing girls' programs in the state—but also a really sociable and social part of our local community where parents, players and supporters alike can enjoy training and game day.

They have experienced a lot of success on the field in 2024, just sadly not on Saturday. Nine out of their 15 junior premiership teams played in finals this year, including six out of their seven girls' teams, which is an amazing achievement and I want to pass on my congratulations to all of those teams, and also to the senior teams, of course, who both in A and B Grades made their respective Division 1 grand finals over this past weekend but unfortunately did not take home the trophy. It was, nonetheless, fantastic to join them, not only on Saturday but right across the season at the Glenunga hub enjoying home matches at Webb Oval. It was a great atmosphere that was there on Saturday, enjoyed by people of all ages. There were the past players who first pulled on that guernsey in the 1950s, right through to some of the youngest fans who are kicking around in Auskick football, a really great family-friendly and fun environment.

I want not only to congratulate them on their successes but thank all the volunteers who have been involved in the club throughout this year. That sort of success is not achieved without hundreds of hours from hundreds of people helping out in our local community, including in particular the juniors' parents who have helped at the club with everything from coaching and coordinating game schedules, maintaining equipment, fulfilling important roles like team manager and age coordinator, washing the uniforms—and of course, very importantly, manning the barbecue, which is growing and getting more variety by the week seemingly.

There are a lot of senior volunteers as well who help out at seniors' matches, and all of the Glenunga supporters, who come along every Saturday to Webb Oval. When home games are on there are people there from 7am setting up and making sure everything is ready. So I want to take this opportunity in this place to acknowledge all their efforts as well.

I acknowledge the whole club, but in particular I want to acknowledge all of the committee, including its executive consisting of the president, Tom Edwards; the chair of the club, Stuart Campbell; the treasurer, Kylie Wisman; the secretary, Michael Edwards; the senior football director, Chris Aston; and the junior football director, Luke Walker.

The final thing I want to acknowledge is—I noted before the growing girls' program, with over 200 girls and I think about seven teams in the juniors program—this year has been another important year for launching a new initiative at Glenunga which is its arrangement with AFLW superstar and Adelaide Crows player Chelsea Randall, who has spearheaded the club's inaugural girls' leadership and mentoring program. I had the honour of being able to go to the launch of that program a few months ago in the season and it is going to be a really important way to inspire and equip junior sports players to be the best version of themselves, both on and off the field. I thank and acknowledge Chelsea for being part of that initiative.

While they did not quite get the trophy on Saturday, I congratulate Glenunga on their success right across the season.

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