Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Recently I became aware of a rising sporting star from the Central Coast named Ryan Kesby. Ryan has been dealt a few challenges in his early life. However, he has not allowed this to alter his trajectory. When Ryan was a child, he exhibited signs of strong athletic capabilities, and pretty soon it became evident that he was developing sporting skills beyond his age.

In primary school, Ryan struggled academically and was challenged with his learning. He experienced difficulties with friendship groups and, unfortunately, was subjected to bullying. Ryan didn't let this get to him, and he decided to throw himself into sport. He took a liking to trampolining and was very soon identified as talented and was asked to compete in the New South Wales team. However, luck was not on his side: he broke an arm a few weeks before, and the opportunity was missed. This did not deter Ryan, though.

In 2015, Ryan's world was changed when he first ran onto the field to play AFL. Soon he was selected to represent the Central Coast. He did this from 2015 to 2021—six years. That's quite an impressive span of representative sporting achievements. In 2017 Ryan was named Best and Fairest for Hunter Central Coast AFL. He represented Narara Valley High School in Sydney North for AFL in 2019 and he was named the athletics champion of the school for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021. Further to this, Ryan was acknowledged as the junior male sportsperson in 2019 and senior sportsperson at Narara Valley High School in 2019 and 2022.

Ryan decided to try touch football now and was selected to play in the Central Coast Dolphins representative touch football team. He did so across several years from 2019 to 2022, receiving the coach's award in 2020 and 2021. Ryan has just returned from playing in the New South Wales Combined High School Open Boys Touch Football team at the National Youth Championships on the Sunshine Coast.

Ryan has completed a Certificate II in Hospitality (Kitchen Operations) and is finalising his practical experience in a Certificate II in Construction Pathways. Currently he's holding down two part-time jobs and he's saving for a car. As you can imagine, Ryan's mother is beyond proud of him, as are we, the people of the Central Coast. I think it's fair to say: 'Ryan, you're doing an amazing job, mate. Keep up the good work.'

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