As part of his brief Australian tour, President Obama met with the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon Tony Abbott, and Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Foreign Affairs Shadow Minster, the Hon Julie Bishop, prior to addressing all Members of Parliament in Canberra.
In her role as a member of the West Coast Eagles board of directors, Ms Bishop presented President Obama with a personalised West Coast guernsey as a special gift to commemorate his trip to Australia.
At a recent West Coast board strategy meeting, Ms Bishop informed her fellow directors of the upcoming meeting with President Obama and communications manager Gary Stocks arranged for a personalised guernsey to be presented to him.
Ms Bishop said President Obama was delighted to accepted the gift.
“John Worsfold and Trevor Nisbett and I discussed it and we decided on the number one and in my meeting today with the President, I presented it to him,” Ms Bishop said.
“I said that my team was the West Coast Eagles and that we’d had a fantastic season, having gone from bottom in 2010 to the finals in 2011.
"He thought we sounded like a great team and when I said, ‘think of the Pittsburgh Steelers’, he said, ‘a really great team!’”
