Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The people in my electorate are incredibly passionate about their sport. The member for Makin mentioned the AFLW final. I was fortunate enough to be at the Werribee Football Club Avalon oval to watch the Adelaide Crows women's team play North Melbourne in the conference rounds, and to be up close and personal to those girls playing our great game of football was amazing—to see the progression over two years, in terms of the talent, the play and the speed at which they moved the ball was incredibly impressive. I was not surprised to see the Adelaide team come out victorious on the weekend.

I had the pleasure, as I tweeted on the day, of watching a plethora of women's sport in my lounge room as I sat and took a couple of hours out. On my television, on the big screen, I had the AFLW final, but of course Bendigo on the weekend was home to a four-way netball preseason tournament where the Vixens were playing the Magpies at the same time as the AFLW grand final, so I had both happening. On my iPad I had the Vixens playing the Magpies—and of course it would be terrible if I forgot to mention that the Vixens beat the Magpies on the weekend in Bendigo!—and on the large screen I had the AFLW.

It was wonderful to hear so many female voices coming from both my iPad and the television. As a woman who lives with four blokes—three sons and a partner—it was terrific to be in my lounge room surrounded by female commentators, commentating both sports, and watching women, our elite athletes, at their very, very best, in intense competition for balls of both shapes. We had the round ball happening, obviously, on the netball court, and of course we had the oval ball being chased around Adelaide Oval.

So I look forward to the T20 World Cup. I can't promise I'll watch any of the men's cricket in that tournament, but I'll be glued to my television set, or watching live somewhere around the country, watching our great Australian women's cricketers compete on the world stage. Of course, Australia will be hoping that we'll take out both crowns, as is our usual prediction—we always predict we're going to win. We push our teams into a corner so that they have to deliver on our wish. And hopefully the T20 2020 major sporting event, as it will be now known under the act, will see Australia successful again.

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