Premier Peter Malinauskas returns to footy field for Adelaide University
South Australia’s Premier and self-confessed “average footballer” has returned to the field for his old club — with mixed results. See the video.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Self-confessed pretty average football player Peter Malinauskas has returned to the footy field to honour an old mate’s 400th game for their Adelaide University team, affectionately known as “The Scum”.
Pulling on the boots on Saturday morning for the second time since becoming Premier, Mr Malinauskas helped chair off Adrian “Howie” Howard after an 80-point win over CBC Old Collegians.
Mr Malinauskas had been deliberately coy about his football comeback, preferring to play relatively anonymously alongside teammates he’s known since before entering public life.
Saturday morning’s University Oval match was about honouring “Howie”, he said, rather than drawing the spotlight himself.
“Seriously he’s one of the best blokes I’ve ever met in my life. He’s just such a good club man and generous to everybody,” Mr Malinauskas told the Sunday Mail.
Mr Howard, a 49-year-old Telstra service delivery manager, has played alongside 1046 teammates at the Blacks.
He kicked four goals against CBC and was named best player. The Premier, playing at centre-half forward and in the forward pocket, kicked two second-half goals.
Mr Malinauskas, donning number 260, put in a valiant effort in the first half but his lack of match practice was exposed early.
Footage from 7 NEWS shows him winning a free kick close to goal after being crunched by an opponent but his subsequent mistimed shot from dead in front was touched on the line.
Earlier, an assertive Malinauskas lead was rewarded with a well-judged pass but the ball slipped through the Premier’s fingers as he attempted an overhead mark.
An enthusiastic attempt to crash a pack appeared mistimed and Mr Malinauskas ended up, instead, crashing to the ground.
In footage of another marking contest, the Premier appealed for a free kick, perhaps believing his opponent had pushed his left shoulder, but was left unrewarded by the umpire. There were no signs of dissent.
Blacks chairman Peter Sharley said Mr Howard was “a volunteer like no other” and had inspired players like the Premier, who “values the culture and inclusiveness of the club”.
Dr Sharley said The Scum’s job was to make “the many other teams in the club look good”.
“When they lose they sing a song of thanks to the opposition. This year they have not lost a game and are being reprimanded by the club,” he declared.
The Premier has played 175 games for The Blacks - the first in 2008 - and kicked 215 goals.
Mr Malinauskas’s football prowess was thrust to public prominence in the lead-up to the March 19 state election, at which he spearheaded Labor to a landslide win.
A wall-to-wall ALP advertising campaign from January had Mr Malinauskas describing himself as “a husband, a father of three, a weekend gardener, a pretty average footy player …”
Mr Malinauskas was once a regular in the Blacks’ C6 division team – jocularly named ‘the Scum” for their own collective prowess – in the amateur Adelaide Footy League.
Shortly after taking over from Jay Weatherill as Labor leader in 2018, Mr Malinauskas also took to the footy field for the Blacks.
For the record, Saturday morning’s result was 17.13 (115) to 5.5 (35).
Join the conversation
Is our hospo hell finally over? Big sign trader failures have peaked
Business insolvencies have surged to a record high but a new report suggests they may have peaked and there are promising signs for the embattled construction and hospitality industries.
Read more
Waiting hours for help, days for a bed: Doctors expose hospital strain
Besieged frontline clinicians at a hospital in Adelaide’s north say they are ‘shattered’ in constantly dealing with more patients than official capacity.
Read more