Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian Football League has begun an inquiry in Melbourne to investigate why the Melbourne based teams are not enjoying the success that the interstate terms are. It was against that background that I found most curious an article that appeared last week in the Herald Sun in Melbourne which was very critical of the AFL having arranged yesterday’s first-grade home and away match here in Canberra between the Western Bulldogs and the Sydney Swans. In fact, the facts really need to be explained clearly to this particular journalist. The Sydney Swans have made a decision to play matches in Canberra for the next three years—a full and total commitment to the code here. They were not paid to come to Canberra from Sydney; they are here for the exposure of the game and the promotion of their code and their brand of football as a means of extending the game.

I have to say that the near record crowd yesterday saw a wonderful game—and I have to declare an interest inasmuch as I am a very strong Swans supporter. Having seen the game, I know that the crowd and the hundreds of young children participating beforehand in an Auskick superclinic, which was free to them, really showed a good and proper investment in the extension of the code as a national sport here in the national capital. ACT business and the local community are to be commended for getting behind the extension of AFL as they are doing here in the ACT. There will be another match in August and I am hopeful that this journalist can come to that game. (Time expired)