Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Saturday night I had the wonderful experience of attending the Briggs Road complex in Raceview, where the Western Pride Football Club senior men's team scored its first-ever victory in the National Premier League Queensland grand final to become the premier soccer team in Queensland.

The victory was made more special because it was in front of their home crowd in Ipswich. Congratulations to goalscorer Cameron Crestani and to goalscorer Dylan Wenzel-Halls, who scored the winning goal in the 89th minute with a free kick that would have done a Brazilian striker proud. It was a great curling kick! Congratulations also to Max Davison for a brilliant goalkeeping effort that kept us in touch in the first half. I was there, along with the new mayor of Ipswich, Andrew Antoniolli, who jokingly said as one of his campaign promises that he'd bring a grand final victory to Ipswich. I don't think Andrew had much to do with this victory; it was a great club effort. I congratulate the management, staff and all the team for the wonderful effort.

The depth of talent and outstanding success is a result of the real and intense dedication and hard work the club has put into community participation in the area. Western Pride FC represents the greater Ipswich and western corridor heartland. Ipswich has had a long history of great soccer achievements and great soccer teams—from church soccer teams such as at Raceview United, Blackstone United Welsh and Silkstone Baptist through to the historic St Helen's and Coalstars. I want to congratulate all the local teams who got together and collaborated to establish the Western Pride team in 2012. It has a real focus on football career development and opportunity for young people. There are many FFA-affiliated clubs in the junior boys' and girls' catchment associated clubs. The Western Pride fields both male and female teams, from under 13s to seniors, and they run a fantastic skills program, providing excellent opportunities for young people to develop their skills. They also have other great programs, such as the Learning With Pride program which is designed to promote reading with students.

In my electorate of Blair, we have significant growth in the suburbs of Ripley, Redbank Plains, Springfield, Leichhardt and Deebing Heights, to name just a few. I want to particularly congratulate a true believer, General Manager Pat Boyle, who has been a great advocate. I think it is high time that Football Federation Australia have a look at this. I think they should be supporting Western Pride to join the proposed FFA Hyundai A-League expansion, currently rumoured to take place in 2018-19. Ipswich is growing rapidly, and we deserve a team in the A-League.