Thursday, 10 September 2026

 Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (17:24): (1843) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Sport, and the action I seek is that he meet with the premiership-winning teams in my electorate. It has been a massive season for all our local footy clubs competing in the Eastern Football Netball League. To the Park Orchards footy club women’s team, who I promised I would give a massive shout-out to if they won their third premiership running, they have done us so proud by making history with their eighth consecutive final and now three premierships at the highest level – yeah, the girls! A big shout-out to their amazing director of women’s sport Vicki Knight and to coaches Dave Boell, Siv Panza, Wayne Taylor, Simon Mcauliffe and Greg Heymanson. One of the most wholesome things in watching this game was to see that every single one of those coaches is the dad of a girl in that team. It is so special to see, and it was one of the proudest moments to see those dads run onto the field, swelling with pride, as the proudest girl dads you ever did see as they coached their girls to a historic win for the third year running. These girls are elite at their sport, including our homegrown talent Jorja Livingstone, who has just been drafted to my beloved Dees.

At the Warrandyte Footy Club, which I encourage again the Minister for Sport to meet with, for the first time this decade all three teams made it to the grand final – the under-19s, the reserves and the seniors – so it was incredibly special this Sunday when every one of those teams won the flag, game after game after game. What was amazing to see was the four sets of brothers that played that day and the two brothers that coached the seniors team, as well as the women’s netball red team, who won their grand final, as well as the Warrandyte women’s team making it to their first grand final, with six teams and four premierships. Then it was off to Mad Monday, which I did not participate in, but I am told it was a lot of fun – not to mention, in the junior footy, the under-18 girls taking home the flag. In the words of Duncan Loydell, the president of the Warrandyte junior footy club, we should have called a public holiday in town on Monday. It is a pretty good win for a suburb of 4200 people.

Then it was a joy to see the Donvale footy club win the premiership against The Basin – what a win. This topped off an amazing Saturday where the reserves won a fourth consecutive flag. A big shout-out to the president John Giles and his leadership team and the Donvale women’s netball team, who also won the division 1 premiership. I look forward to seeing your new scoreboard and lights that we have committed to the club. Finally, a big congratulations to the North Ringwood footy club, who now have three women’s teams, with the division 3 team winning their grand final.