One netball club at a time, Malcolm Turnbull is trying to court voters.
The sport has become the game of choice for the 2016 election campaign.
Having already visited players in the Melbourne seat of Higgins, the Queensland seat of Fairfax and in his own Sydney electorate of Wentworth, the prime minister travelled to grand final day at Heathmont in Melbourne on Saturday.
Ahead of his arrival on a chilly morning, teenage competitors were getting excited.
"Malcolm Turnbull's coming," they said to each other.
When he did pull up to the courts with wife Lucy and Liberal MP Michael Sukkar there were cheers and squeals from the youngsters.
The Turnbulls helped present medals to the winners as parents tried valiantly to get a picture of their child with the PM and his wife.
Nearly half of Wednesday night games at the complex in the marginal Liberal-held seat of Deakin were washed out last year.
After much lobbying by the Melbourne East Netball Association, Mr Turnbull used his visit to announce $10.5 million towards an indoor complex for the 3600 registered netballers in the area.
It follows previous announcements this week of $100 million for the Townsville stadium and $6 million for the expansion of Baseball Park in Perth - and comes in addition to Michaelia Cash's announcement on Saturday of $10 million for a new Queensland state netball centre in the seat of Moreton.
Mr Turnbull insisted the funding is focused on growing jobs in the surrounding regions.
It's also about investing in the health of young people.
"If you can encourage kids to exercise and play sport, if you can take on and defeat childhood obesity, you set those kids up for a long and healthy life and a much more productive life," he told reporters.
His visit coincided with Bill Shorten's at a similar facility on the NSW Central Coast.
Mr Turnbull will continue the day's sports theme when he attends the prime minister's Olympians dinner later on Saturday.
Share
