Thank you very much Colin, Rod Kemp, the Minister for Sport, David Gallop, former rugby league greats, current rugby league greats, Craddock Morton, ladies and gentlemen. We all know how much sport binds Australians together and I think it's entirely appropriate that, as rugby league contemplates its centenary year in 2008, it is entirely appropriate that we come here at the National Museum to kick-off that event. And we'll have the opportunity from now and through 2008 to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of rugby league and to reminisce about the journey over that 100 year period.
Rugby league like every other sport has gone through many variations over that period of time, but the essential character of the game has not changed. I suppose the secret of the survival of any sport is to retain its essential character to provide a bit of continuity, but at the same time to adapt and change.
When I first started listening to rugby league games on ABC radio in Sydney in the late 1940s and the early 1950s, one of the very first names I did start to hear was Rayner, and names like Rayner and Pidding and Churchill and Cowie and Graves, they were some of the names that I heard so much of in those days. And of course then it was, what, the J.J. Giltinan Shield - now that of course has gone through many iterations. And the contemplation then that you would have a rugby league grand final played in Sydney between the Brisbane Broncos and the Melbourne Storm was of course beyond the comprehension of anybody following rugby league in Sydney, just as anybody following rugby league in Brisbane, which had of course its own competition, as it were completely sealed away from what was going on in Sydney. Now that of course is the most compelling change that's occurred.
And can I just say what a wonderful year Darren Lockyer has had and can I pay tribute to him. I think anybody who has the honour of captaining Australia in a sport has a special place in our affections and Darren's had a great year. He had a great State of Origin, I shared some of the effervescence in the Queensland dressing room after that victory in Melbourne - which is another reminder of the way the game's gone national - and of course his great performance in the grand final and his great victory, his golden point, his golden try on Saturday night. And what Saturday night also reminded us of is that one of the dimensions of rugby league is its international dimension. Once again when I first started following the highlight of the year was a Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground between Australia and Great Britain, if the Poms were touring Australia at that time, then it sort of become a bit less competitive and the State of Origin has dominated us as well as the grand final, but of course in more recent years it's a good reminder that the Tri-Nations still contributes.
But I salute the contribution that rugby league has made to Australia's national identity. It's a tough game. As Ken said it started as the working man's game. It's become every man's game now. It still retains that working class character and that's part of its heart and soul and I hope it always does. But it's also a game that has reached out to the entire community. It's had it ups and downs, the great divide of some years ago with Super League and the more traditional rugby league caused great consternation to many fans, but that has been solved, just as the great divide in cricket in the 1970s was solved, and both games have emerged stronger and better then ever.
And I'm delighted to have been invited, and very honoured to have been invited to come here today to launch this logo, to congratulate rugby league on everything that it's done for Australia, to compliment it on the way in which it's brought city and country together, it's brought people from different parts of the nation together, it's loved in the Pacific Islands - you go to Papua New Guinea and you are astounded by the number of blue and maroon jumpers that are worn at the time of State of Origins - it's almost as if that country is part and parcel of eastern Australia at the time of State of Origin games. So it does have a reach in our region and I compliment it for that.
And to you Colin and all your other colleagues, David Gallop who's done a wonderful job and Geoff Carr, the administrators of game, it's never easy being administrators because if something goes wrong it's your fault and if something succeeds, well of course it has to be due to somebody else's brilliance. But let me say, I think the people who run rugby league do a terrific job and I congratulate them. And most of all I congratulate our players and it's great to see some of the representatives of the greatest club of all here today, and we look forward to those glory days ahead just as much we reflect on the glory days of the past and that's what a centenary is about. I have great pleasure in launching the logo and I wish the game - the self-styled 'greatest game of all' - the greatest of success and good fortune in the future.
Thank you.
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