Page 3519 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 September 2005
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They won the club championship. In first grade they won an absolute nail-biter, 19 points to 17, defeating Tuggeranong. Tuggeranong got a try in extra time and did not convert it. A lot of people were a bit worried then but, in a top display by Wests, they also got a try. Craig Robberds converted it. He had an exceptionally good game. He is a three times Macdougall medal winner, which is a great feat in itself. Behind a very good, aggressive, solid forward pack, he kept turning the play around with some brilliant, well-judged kicks. The rest of the back line’s defence was superb, too.
The second grade saw a solid 27 to 14 win to Wests against Tuggeranong. My old mate Frank Walmsley, second grade captain and prop, put in a sterling effort. Frank does wander around the field like the large prop he is. He was magnificent in the scrums. He came on as a pair of fresh legs, as it were, just before the end of the first grade game, which then went into extra time, and took the ball up a few times with a couple of great barging runs. Well done, Frank, on two premierships.
In third grade, Wests won 14 nil. They were the form side all year. In fourth grade, in a nail-biter, they got up, beating Tuggeranong 17 to 16. In colts they won 36 to 22. It was a Wests v Tuggeranong series, except for the third grade, where Royals got into the grand final, which was good to see as well.
I congratulate everyone involved with Wests, specifically Geoff Stokes, who always downplays how good his team is. He is a master tactician and excellent coach. Again, he has pulled off a magnificent premiership. Geoff, well done to you.
Some other up and coming young players who probably played in their first first grade grand final include Jarrett Budworth, who is also a Vikings player and is off to England, probably with a sore head. He went off on Monday. It was a top display by him. Matt Sutherland, who is a contemporary of Frank—Frank looks a lot older than he probably is but he and Matt came up from the very successful Wests under-18 teams of recent years, coached by Brian Van Arkel—played in this fourth first grade premiership out of four. Players like Matt and Frank are still only young blokes and have got a lot in them. It was a top effort by everyone involved.
It is a magnificent feat for a club to win every single grand final that they participated in. Wests are to be congratulated. They celebrated long and hard. My congratulations to everyone involved with the Wests club on a particularly brilliant effort.
Mr Speaker, in terms of explaining what a child of the sixties is: I do not think I will bother. That was an amusing debate we had earlier. Suffice it to say that I thought that if you grew up as a kid in a period of time—
Mr Quinlan: Can you explain what Vicki Dunne said?
MR STEFANIAK: I cannot explain what either of those two members said. We will have to read Hansard to see what they are on about there. If I am a child of the sixties, Ted, you would have to be one of the early sixties or late fifties. We have probably got a few children here of the seventies, the eighties and perhaps even the nineties.
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