Page 4906 - Week 11 - Thursday, 21 October 2010
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very famous Canberra AFL family. I say g’day to his dad, Allan. There is current Sydney Swans co-captain Craig Bolton and, most recently a young Eastlake player, Josh Bruce. He became the first local player to be signed by Greater Western Sydney following his selection in the 2010 all Australian under 18 team.
How good is this? His selection highlights the pathway that many young Canberran footballers aspire to when they participate each week. As part of the nurturing of local talent, GWS have stated their intention to create a junior GWS elite talent squad for Canberra’s best talent enabling them to prepare their skills as they move through the age brackets. This will help the local players. It is the best opportunity yet to develop their talent and train with a high quality squad. There are now over 24,000 participants in AFL in the ACT and surrounding region and participation numbers in Canberra are continually improving.
I could not make a speech about AFL without talking about the women’s league. I recognise Gary Buchanan in the gallery today. He was around when I was pestering everybody to try and get the women’s league recognised.
Mr Doszpot: Ten short, John.
MR HARGREAVES: Ten short what?
Mr Doszpot: Numbers. We need 10 more members—
MR HARGREAVES: No, you do not; you need nine. I just signed up. I would be very interested to know—I ask the minister to check it out—whether GWS is going to have a women’s team. That would be fantastic. You might also like to know that it was Tuggeranong that won the women’s AFL grand final this year, Mr Smyth. I can see he is absolutely schizophrenic. He is beside himself here. He loves his footy does our Mr Smyth.
Mr Barr: They were wearing Hawthorn colours, weren’t they?
MR HARGREAVES: No. Nobody would dare go out in daylight hours wearing Hawthorn colours, Mr Barr—not without armed guards anyway. Since 2001—this is really interesting—the ACT government has supported AFL Canberra with nearly $400,000 in operational support, as well as, of course, supporting numerous other capital works projects through local clubs. High demand for the AFL in Canberra has required upgraded facilities throughout the territory. The government has not only improved the top-end facilities of Manuka Oval and Greenway but also supported local facilities. I am still going to badger the government about knocking off that oval at Isabella Plains for a proper training facility for my beloved Tuggeranong Hawks, but we will talk about that some other time.
We talked about climate change earlier on. I am sorry; it is not Greenway. It is the Gordon district playing fields—home of the Tuggeranong Hawks. We have introduced the Point Hut pump station to irrigate those playing fields rather than use potable water. It will provide a minimum of 95 per cent of the requirements of the 6.9-hectare playing fields, which explains the excellence of the players who come out of that particular Tuggeranong football club.
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