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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-09-17 Daily Xml
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Motions

Basheer AM, Mr M.R.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (17:46): I move:

That this council:

1. Mourns the passing of distinguished South Australian National Football League (SANFL) administrator and stalwart, Max Basheer AM;

2. Acknowledges his immense contribution and enduring leadership across nearly 50 years of service to the SANFL, including 25 years as League President and as Chair of the South Australian Football Commission;

3. Recognises his pivotal role in the establishment of Football Park and in securing the entry of the Adelaide Football Club and Port Adelaide Football Club into the Australian Football League (AFL);

4. Acknowledges his long and outstanding career in the legal profession, including his service as honorary solicitor to the South Australian Amateur Football League; and

5. Extends its sincere condolences to Mr Basheer's daughters, Jayne and Ann, and to the Basheer family on their loss.

This motion celebrates the life of Max Rafeek Basheer AM, a pillar in our community through his longstanding and distinguished service to the legal profession in South Australia and also to the game of football, as its most outstanding administrator.

The final siren sounded on Max's extraordinary life last Sunday. He was 98. Football, particularly the AFL, and the two teams this state has in the competition, and the SANFL could have been much different had it not been for his outstanding leadership in times of crisis and upheaval. Max left an enormous legacy which I do not think will ever be forgotten: 50 years of service and 25 years as SANFL President.

There was a comment I heard on radio on Monday morning, when his passing was announced, that younger generations of football players and followers would not know much about Max's life and career. If they do not, they should. When they see his name on one of the stands at Adelaide Oval, perhaps they can take time to reflect on who he was and what he stood for.

They get to enjoy the experience and the results of his decades-long dedication, hard work, hard knocks and foremost his integrity in making football the vibrant activity we have in our community, whether it is at the highest level in the AFL and SANFL or the amateur ranks and grassroots with kids, and which also has now become inclusive with women participating.

Max's parents were Druze immigrants who had settled in Kalangadoo. He went to school at Prince Alfred College and then on to Adelaide University where he studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1951 and enjoyed a successful career. He was a partner and then a senior partner in several law firms. Even though he had long retired from the legal profession, Max would still be seen visiting the office.

The Basheer family is well known for their strong presence in the hospitality business, running several successful hotels including the Strathmore, where I first met Max and his brother Fred, when working for The News afternoon newspaper. Max's nephew, David Basheer, now runs the Strathmore and other hospitality venues in the city.

Max was a handy player as a rover. He played amateur league, but could have played SANFL for Sturt had it not been for North Adelaide blocking his request to move to Unley. He also served time on the SANFL's disciplinary tribunal, where—by accounts of some former players I know—he handed out some tough suspensions.

Max came into his own steering the SANFL away from the Adelaide Oval after a protracted dispute with the South Australian Cricket Association and Sir Donald Bradman, to build a new, modern oval at West Lakes, which later became known as Football Park. It was a brave decision. West Lakes was a swamp being developed into housing and, even though it was only 13 kilometres from the city, it still seemed a long way to go. It was also bloody cold in winter and in night matches, earning the nickname 'Pleurisy Park'. It was finished in 1974. It hosted crowds of up to 80,000—grand finals, State of Origin, World Series Cricket, soccer internationals, rock concerts by some of the biggest names of the time and, of course, the beginnings of the Crows, the Adelaide Football Club in 1991, and then Port Adelaide in 1997, creating the famous Showdown rivalry between those two clubs.

The last game was played there in 2013 and the move to the new Adelaide Oval when peace was brokered with the South Australian Cricket Association. Max had a showdown of his own with Footy Park in 1978. The local council refused to allow floodlights. There was a royal commission and a court case in the Supreme Court in a battle that lasted 6½ years. Leigh Whicker, general manager of the SANFL and a close confidant of Max for more than 30 years, told me this week he was a very detailed, astute person and never left anything to chance. His heart was in the SANFL, Leigh said.

The biggest battle came in 1990 when Port Adelaide wanted to leave the SANFL and join the VFL after the Victorians had tried to woo Norwood. Four years earlier, Max and an SANFL delegation were meeting their counterparts in Western Australia who told them they were breaking their pact with South Australia to create the West Coast Eagles and join the Victorian competition. Max and the board then created a retention scheme to keep our best players from being lured over the border and it was funded with houses that were provided by well-known Adelaide developer and philanthropist Gordon Pickard.

At the time, I was the editor of The News. Port Adelaide's attempt was controversial, divisive and labelled as an act of treachery. It created daily headlines, enemies who were once friends, tension and emotional scenes as the fight dragged through the courts. Max and his SANFL board kept calm, putting the interests of the game in South Australia first. As Max once said in an ABC story in 1978, South Australia—football, that is—was not even talking to the Victorians, and there was no dialogue between the two bodies, such was the bitter acrimony. Kick a Vic had its genesis at this time. Here is how Max described it to journalist Anne Johnson, the wife of legendary football broadcaster Bruce McAvaney:

No-one has any idea now of just how difficult the time was. In my office I couldn't come out the front, because there was a barrage of TV cameras and radio people and newspaper people waiting. I've been pretty low at times but, on the other side of the ledger, there have been times of real exhilaration, I mean, when we've won an interstate match, when we've beaten Victoria. It's hard to go through life in football, at the top, without having upset a few people. I reckon you could count them on one hand, if I have.

Radio broadcaster Ken Cunningham, who was a strong critic of Port Adelaide's actions, had to run the gauntlet of angry Port supporters at the Alberton Oval who were baying for his blood. He told me this week:

I really thought they were going to kill me. I had a lot of threats. They kept saying, 'You've backed the wrong horse here. It will be your downfall.'

KG is full of praise for the way Max Basheer handled the crisis and stood up to the Victorians. Quoting Ken again:

He fought them. He stood up to them. He eyeballed Alan Schwab (then VFL general manager).

He put his head on the chopping block.

He was the best administrator I've seen. He was remarkable.

There is this from football writer, author and broadcaster Michelangelo Rucci:

My lasting note on Max is a philosophical theme I wish the world could adopt.

He did not seek revenge. He did not seek ultimate victory. He sought solutions. His masterful moment in 1990 was in that meeting with the AFL where he knew who was on the other side of the table and what he wanted.

He gave Ross Oakley $1 million to take the Crows and not Port Adelaide, well not until the second licence in 1994.

He knew the VFL wanted money. He found the solution to avoid a long and bloodied war.

He was pragmatic. He was the man for solutions.

His battle with (Sir Donald) Bradman over Adelaide Oval was a long game that he won while Bradman rolled in his grave.

But the key note—Max would win while never making the opponent feel a loss.

Imagine if he ran the world.

Our sincere condolences go to Max Basheer's family.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.

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