Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On Saturday, 24 September this year, I attended the South Australian men's and women's hockey finals at the South Australian State Hockey Centre as I have on other occasions in recent years. Hockey does not have the public profile of football, soccer, basketball or netball, but it nevertheless has a strong participation rate across Australia, with 123,000 people across the country playing hockey. Importantly, hockey has brought international recognition and pride to Australia, with both the national men's and women's teams having won numerous international medals over the years and hockey having proven to be one of Australia's most successful fields of international sporting endeavour.

Around 8,000 South Australians play hockey and my electorate of Makin is home to both the state hockey facilities at the State Sports Park and to the North East Hockey Club, otherwise known as the Zulus, at Golden Grove. North East Hockey Club was formed in 1994 as the result of a merger between the Campbelltown and Tea Tree Gully hockey clubs. In recent years I have visited the club and watched them play on several occasions. I particularly wanted to attend this year's finals because the North East Hockey Club was playing in the grand finals of the men's Premier League and the men's Metro Seniors division 1 competition. At the end of the day, the North East Hockey Club came away with victories in both of these finals, which capped off a very successful year for the club. For the Premier League men's team it was a particularly sweet victory because they had played in and lost the two previous years. grand finals. The club also won the Metro 3 men's premiership as well as the under-15 boys premiership in grand finals that were held earlier in the week.

A month earlier, at the state hockey award presentations, coach Ian Wishart was awarded the South Australian hockey club coach of the year. Ian is a very worthy recipient of that award. He is not only a successful coach but also a great player and a terrific team man. The prestigious best and fairest award was jointly won by ., both from the North East Hockey Club.

I take this opportunity to congratulate Ian, Will and Ryan for their wards and to congratulate all the players, coaches and support staff of the teams which won premierships. I also congratulate Adelaide Hockey Club for their very close win over Port Adelaide in the women's Premier League and the Annesley Old Scholars Hockey Club for their close victory over Port Adelaide in the Metro 1 women's final.

On Saturday, 15 October, I attended the North East Hockey Club's seniors award presentation evening where the following players were recipients of best and fairest player awards for their respective teams: Ryan O'Shea; Holly Evans—and Holly, I might say, is a national player; Peter Nugent; Janet O'Shea; John Usher; Elisa Gesualdi; Phillip Newland; Johnny Griffiths; Erin Findlay; Jason Connor; and Nieski Verwaal. On the night, President Jim Hughes and Ian Jennings were also very deservedly awarded life memberships. I congratulate the recipients of all of those awards.

I also acknowledge the hard work and leadership of the committee led by President Jim Hughes, coaches and volunteers at the North East Hockey Club who have done an incredible job in overseeing the club's success, its development and its growth. It is a credit to them and to all the people that support them at that club.

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