Carlton Supporters Club

To understand the folly of Victoria’s aborted Commonwealth Games, the best place to start is the freshly rendered streets of Armstrong Creek. It is here, in a colony of new housing estates clumped halfway along a road that runs between Geelong and the Surf Coast, that Australia’s best swimmers would have ruled the pool in 2026.

To make this happen and bequeath to a fast-growing, aspirational community what the Andrews government promised would be a “long-lasting and world-class venue,” the Victoria 2026 organisers were given a blueprint that, if not so far-fetched, would read like satire.

The state would spend $111 million on an architecturally designed aquatics centre with two 10-lane, 50-metre, internationally accredited swimming pools, a diving pool and enough temporary stands to seat spectators, officials, sponsors and media at one of the most popular events on the Games program.

Once the closing ceremony had been held down the road at Kardinia Park in Geelong, both 50-metre pools would be yanked out of the ground, the stands pulled down and a permanent building constructed around the diving pool. This would leave the young families of Armstrong Creek and neighbouring communities with a modest, 25-metre pool for their kids to take swimming lessons, cool off in summer and perhaps dream of being the next Emma McKeon

This was the plan until the early hours of Tuesday, when lawyers representing the Victorian government informed an unsuspecting Commonwealth Games Federation that they were scrapping the entire show. But it wasn’t the plan conceived by the people who put together Victoria’s Games bid, nor the brainchild of anyone in Victoria 2026 or the Office of the Commonwealth Games; the twin bureaucracies established to deliver the ill-fated event.

The idea of holding the swimming at Armstrong Creek purportedly originated from deep within Premier Daniel Andrews’ office, sometime between April and July 2022, for reasons that appear to have more to do with making an electoral splash than staging the best event or even satisfying the government’s stated purpose for hosting the Games – to create a tangible legacy for regional communities.

The original plan was for the swimming to be held at an existing aquatic centre at Kardinia Park. This is why, on March 1, 2022, Dame Louise Martin and Katie Sadleir from the Commonwealth Games Federation, Ben Houston and Craig Phillips from Commonwealth Games Australia and Visit Victoria chief Brendan McClements – the person who had pitched Victoria’s bid three months earlier – travelled to Geelong with senior government bureaucrats to tour that site.

This is the plan the City of Greater Geelong council supported. At the time, Games planners had a new gymnastics venue pencilled in next to the pool. This would have established Kardinia Park as a central Games precinct and, after the event, given the neighbouring Geelong Football Club access to a high-roofed, indoor training

“When we went to candidature it was in the bid,” said a member of the organising committee, speaking anonymously because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the venue deliberations. “At some stage, the venue plan shifted to building this facility to Armstrong Creek. When we found out what they were actually building, it was quite bizarre.”

Another Games official, also unauthorised to speak publicly, said there were space constraints at Kardinia Park that would have made it difficult – though not impossible – to fit everything in. Before the proposal was costed, organisers received word from Spring Street that the swimming was shifting to Armstrong Creek. “It was driven by government, undoubtedly,” the official said.

Why did Andrews want to stage an international swimming event in Armstrong Creek rather than at a central Geelong location which already had a 50-metre pool, was close to a train station and had a proven record of being able to handle large crowds?

“We promised a new aquatic centre in the growing community of Armstrong Creek to make sure that, rather than upgrading an existing pool at Kardinia Park, the legacy benefits will remain for generations of families – and that’s exactly what we’ll still deliver,” a spokesperson for the premier said on Friday.

Another clue may lie within last year’s state election campaign.

Kardinia Park is located in the electorate of Geelong, a safe Labor seat held by a 10 per cent margin before last year’s election. Armstrong Creek is located in the neighbouring electorate of South Barwon, a seat held by Labor’s Darren Cheeseman on a margin of just 3 per cent before the election and a seat the Liberal Party had to win if the Coalition hoped to return to power.

It was not until October 29, two days before Victoria entered its caretaker period ahead of the November election, that the Andrews government formally announced the swimming and diving would be staged at Armstrong Creek. It pledged to spend $300 million on the aquatics centre and a new gymnastics and weightlifting stadium at Waurn Ponds. On election night, South Barwon delivered the largest swing to Labor of any seat in the state.

Dan Andrews has pulled the plug after his reign of terror and will officially take the money and run tomorrow at 5pm after spending all of our money and leaving behind a trail of debt..

Dan Andrews has pulled the plug after his reign of terror and will officially take the money and run tomorrow at 5pm after spending all of our money and leaving behind a trail of debt..

Dan Andrews has pulled the plug after his reign of terror and will officially take the money and run tomorrow at 5pm after spending all of our money and leaving behind a trail of debt..

Bolts with the state on its knees with spiralling debt all overseen by his government- the arrogance and stubbornness this bloke showed throughout his ruling was disgusting. Watch him pack up and leave the ruined state and live out his days interstate regionally before he takes a bigger tumble down more stairs. You watch.

During the last election campaigning he re assured voters despite all the rumours he would not be stepping down and would see his term out.

A liar till the very end.