James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to unashamedly brag about a fantastic win by the Norwood Redlegs at the SANFL Grand Final. For the many people here who are not from South Australia, I can simply make the reference that that win was the exact opposite of the AFL Grand Final two days ago. It was a one-point win by the Redlegs with the last goal of the game, just a couple of minutes before the siren. It was an absolute thrill.

I take the opportunity, firstly, to congratulate all members of the team. They had what turned out to be an unbelievable fairytale finish to a season. They were not the favourites in that game. They were not necessarily expected by some to even make the grand final. It was only four years ago that I was at a grand final with the same two teams—North Adelaide versus Norwood in 2018—which had a very different and very disappointing outcome compared to last Sunday. So there was a little bit of poetic justice in the win this year. I've now been to a couple of grand final wins by the Norwood Redlegs in the last 10 years. It's great to see how healthy and strong the club is.

It's a very important for me to point out as the member for Sturt that, despite the fact there is a club called Sturt in the SANFL, I absolutely do not support them. I am absolutely very proudly a Norwood Redlegs fan. In fact, my electorate office is just down the road from the home ground there on the parade. We had a fantastic time getting back there from Adelaide Oval after the game. It was an amazing celebration. Frankly, this is the great thing about SANFL football: it was a real community celebration. To all head back to the parade and be there at the fantastic redeveloped grandstand, which the former coalition government was able to put excellent financial support towards, meant we could really enjoy ourselves into the Sunday evening and celebrate a great club with a very long, proud history and tradition of being so central to the Norwood community and, more broadly, the eastern and north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide, which very happily overlap the boundaries of my electorate of Sturt.

The SANFL is a really important part of the sporting fabric of South Australia. Of course, with the football code, excellent work is being done in South Australia. There has been increasing female participation in football over the last few years. In particular, we've had some great investments in football infrastructure, particularly female change rooms to facilitate that participation. We have a game, really, where there is so much opportunity for everyone in our community to be a part of it, and the SANFL and clubs like Norwood are doing great work in the community, I'm so proud of them. Congratulations on their win. It was a thrill to be there.

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