Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to put the case to the rugby league clubs based in Sydney that it is time they faced reality and moved to the Central Coast. We have nine rugby league teams crowding the Sydney market at the moment and playing before empty stadiums but, on the Central Coast, we have a growing population who are dying to have a rugby league team there. We know it can be done on the Central Coast, because we have the success of the Central Coast Mariners—and what a success they have been. They have twice been runners-up in the three years of the A league and have twice won the preseason competition.

When the Mariners play at the Gosford stadium they play to a packed crowd every week. If you compare the sorts of crowds that we get at the Bluetongue Stadium at Gosford who come to see the Mariners with the empty stadiums that we see throughout Sydney at which the NRL clubs based in Sydney are playing, you will see that it is time the clubs bit the bullet and moved up to the Central Coast. We have the infrastructure, and we have the supporter base. In fact, the Bluetongue Stadium is recognised as being the best regional stadium in Australia. It caters for 20,000 fans, so it is the right size for the population base that we have on the Central Coast, and we know that at we can fill it.

It is not just the Mariners that lead people on the Central Coast to know that we can have our own rugby league team and successfully support it. A couple of years ago with the World Cup rugby we were able to get three games on the Central Coast. These games were not the most attractive of games. In fact, I think the most attractive game was Namibia versus Romania, one that is hardly likely to cause a lot of Sydney fans to come along and see the game. But at Bluetongue Stadium at Gosford it was a sell-out. We had 20,000 people there to watch that game. We had 20,000 people to watch all three games in the World Cub rugby union.

It is the same when the rugby league does come to the Gosford stadium. Recently, we had the Melbourne Storm and South Sydney playing. Again, they played before a packed audience. The Sydney clubs need to face the reality that they do not have the supporter base. We look at other codes and the success that they have in Sydney, and less is best. We see the success of the Sydney Swans. That is just one team that is in the town, and that is what is needed with rugby league. With rugby union, we just have the Waratahs, and that works equally well. Look at what happened on the Gold Coast and how successful that franchise has been with the Gold Coast Titans. The Central Coast is a very similar region that can have the same sort of success.

The Central Coast has a history of being a nursery for rugby league. It has a very strong local competition, known as the Health Services Union Cup. It is a competition that has thrived over many years. We have had clubs who participate in the statewide Jim Beam Cup, and we have had a lot of success. In fact, the premiers of the statewide Jim Beam Cup in the last two years have been the famous Entrance Tigers. They are a magnificent team, and they have done the Central Coast proud in the last two years by winning the Jim Beam Cup.

People on the Central Coast deserve to have a national rugby league team. They deserve to have one that they can call their own, and we know that people on the Central Coast will come to watch it. We also know that it is not just politicians who say this. John Singleton has made repeated calls for a club to move to the Central Coast. Mr Gallop, the CEO of the National Rugby League, has in fact offered $8 million for a club to relocate to the Central Coast. They know that the Central Coast should have a club and deserves to have a club, and it is in the interests of rugby league throughout Australia that there be a club based on the Central Coast that can be supported by the people of the Central Coast.