Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This tie promotes the AFC Asian Cup, a competition kicking off in roughly 36 days, eight hours and 40 minutes time and a massive event for football, to be held here in Australia. When I think about that, or whenever I watch packed A-league games, I remember what it was like to support soccer many, many years ago. Most kids played cricket, tennis, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Australian Rules or netball. They rarely played soccer. But times change, so do the names.

We watch and play football now not soccer. And we like what we see: Australia earning kudos on the world stage. No Australian can claim exclusively to have started the game here, but two figures remain household names when it comes to its evolution. One is the late, great, former national captain Johnny Warren, who was instrumental in Australia's first World Cup foray in 1974. The other bloke made Australia his home in 1957. The few who knew him then knew him as Laszlo Urge. The many of us who know him today know him by his voice and his presence on TV, the voice of Mr 'Football', the voice of the one and only Les Murray—the boy from the outskirts of Budapest, Hungary; schooled in Wollongong; bullied for his mum's choice of garlic and paprika spice salami sandwiches. I reckon he was Australian football's Cyrano de Bergerac, wooing a reluctant nation to unlock its affections for the beautiful game.

For those reaching our shores in the mid-1950s, it was not always easy to get a start in a suburban club. Many of our newer citizens started at the newest clubs, clubs that left little doubt where their players and supporters originated—football's UN; teams across leagues and pitches; St George-Budapest; Hellas; Alexander; Sydney Croatia; Sydney Olympic; Marconi; Melita Eagles; and Newbold Apia. Australia's entree to world football stage came in 1963—officially accepted by FIFA and ironically copping a $50,000 fine for poaching overseas players to a national team that contained just three Australian born players.

In 1974, we saw the national team line up in the World Cup for the very first time. The 1970s and 1980s saw good days and rocky days for the NSL. There was an agonising wait to see our Socceroos once again qualify for a World Cup. While it took decades for an Australian side to feature in a World Cup, there was the familiar Australian voice of Les Murray, dissecting and analysing matches for bleary-eyed fans up at obscene hours to watch a game played out a world away. In his 2011 book The World Game, Les Murray astutely observed that football is as much the Australian game as some others we claim as our own. He reasoned that just about every other sport we play here is imported—cricket, rugby codes, tennis and even Aussie rules, which is variation of Gaelic football.

Every sport has its large personalities on and off the court, ground or pitch. In Australian football, there is no larger figure than Les Murray. The man loves football and it loves him back. It was sad earlier this year to hear that Les Murray's familiar smile, big glasses, white hair and sharp suits would no longer be a staple on SBS every time there was a big game somewhere in the world. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil was his last as the anchor of SBS's much watched coverage. SBS first broadcast the final of the FIFA World Cup in 1986 with Les at the helm and the first full broadcast of the FIFA World Cup was in1990. Listen to this list of hits: 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014—eight World Cups across 34 years; Mr 'Football' there, hosting on SBS. But Les had the good judgement to know when to blow the whistle on a full-time commentating career in what is certainly extra time. To coin a line from his great mate Johnny Warren, he is going to allow himself to finally sit back and smell the flowers he has grown.

There are now 1.9 million participants of football in Australia. There is no better sign of this success than in my own backyard with the Western Sydney Wanderers, a club just 2½ years old and now officially the best club in Asia. Les Murray can savour sizeable credit for the incredible part he played as an ambassador for the game, recognised for this when he was made a member of the Order of Australia in 2006. But we cannot sit back and expect endless success which is why I and many others were happy to support Les in his dream to set up the Johnny Warren Football Foundation to develop future players and all those needed to play their role in the growth of the game. As a fan of the sport, and I am sure I speak for so many in this House, and on behalf of many fans, thank you for your service, Les Murray, and in the words that Laszlo would remember: [non-English language not transcribed] congratulations, well played.

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was fantastic. I thank the member for Chifley. Hear, hear from all of us.