Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you are a fan of the national game and believe, to paraphrase HG Nelson and Roy Slaven, that 'too much footy is never enough', Darwin is definitely the place to be, with year-round, non-stop, wall-to-wall footy. Australian football is crucial to the Territory's social make-up, and great Territorians like Michael Long, Maurice and Cyril Rioli, Andrew McLeod, the Davie brothers and Michael 'Magic' McLean have shown the opportunities and rewards the game can bring at an individual level.

Last Saturday the Northern Territory Football League grand final was played, with Saint Mary's winning its 30th premiership. On Sunday the spectacularly colourful Tiwi grand final was held, on Bathurst Island, with the Tuyu Buffalo defeating Mullawurri Magpies by 11 points.

Now we have the conclusion of the Top End competition, there is a week's break before the start of the North East Australian Football League, where my team, Territory Thunder, will take on clubs from Queensland and New South Wales. For the first time, Territory Thunder's opponents will include the reserve grade sides from four AFL clubs: the Greater Western Sydney Giants, Sydney Swans, Gold Coast Suns and Brisbane Lions.

Thunder's new coach, the talented Xavier Clarke, has recruited former AFL stars Aaron and Alwyn Davey; Jarrod Brennan, Richard Tambling, Austin Wonaeamirri and Liam Patrick, who will all boost the Territory Thunder's playing ranks.

There is no doubt one day the Territory will have its own team in the AFL. It may be a few years away but, as we grow, so too will our player base and the financial capacity to support a top-tier team. I look forward to that day—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and I will not take any of the interjections here from my Queensland colleagues but I would like them to take careful note of what I am about to say, because this just shows the Territory capability. Last week I had the enormous pleasure of presenting 23-year-old Abbey Holmes with the Northern Territory Football League's women's goal-kicking medal.

Abbey had a stunning 2013-14 season, which caught the eye of all AFL fans and commentators around the country, because she set a new benchmark to which all women footballers can aspire. Playing with the Waratahs, Abbey became the first woman anywhere in Australia to kick 100 AFL goals in a season. This fantastic effort was all the more remarkable because it was only her second season playing football. In many ways Abbey is the face of Territory footy: young, fresh, bold and bursting with talent.