The Club (1980)

Boardroom and dressing-room intrigues spill on to the field at the Australian Rules football club.

Director:

Bruce Beresford

Writers:

David Williamson (play), David Williamson (screenplay)

Stars:

Jack Thompson, Graham Kennedy, Frank Wilson

5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jack Thompson	...	Laurie Holden
Graham Kennedy	...	Ted Parker
Frank Wilson	...	Jock Riley
Harold Hopkins	...	Danny Rowe
John Howard	...	Geoff Hayward
Alan Cassell	...	Gerry Cooper
Maggie Doyle	...	Susy
Lou Richards	...	Commentator
Toni-Gay Shaw	...	Stripper
Jack Harris	...	1st Club Official
Frank Raggatt	...	2nd Club Official
Jim Cain	...	3rd Club Official
Gary Files	...	2nd Football Commentator
Ed Turley	...	Tony
Scot Palmer	...	Newspaper Reporter 1

Storyline

Boardroom and dressing-room intrigues spill on to the field at the Australian Rules football club.

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Plot Keywords:

australian rules football | club | boardroom | football | football coach | 

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Taglines:

It's tough enough on the field, but in the boardroom it's a battleground! In this club nobody plays by the rules

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Sport

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

South Australian Film Corporation Southern Star Group

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 September 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Players

Filming Locations:

Collingwood Football Club, Collingwood, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

AUD 700,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New South Wales Film Corp., South Australian Film Corporation, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This picture was one of fifty Australian films selected for preservation as part of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's Kodak / Atlab Cinema Collection Restoration Project.

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Quotes

Jock: A marvelous high mark you took last Saturday. You just seemed to go up and up!
Geoff Hayward: Yeah, i felt like Achilles
Jock: Yes...
[laughs]
Jock: ... Who's he?
Geoff Hayward: A Greek guy who could really jump
Jock: Ah, yeah yeah. Well some of these new Australians, you know they could be real champions, if they forget about soccer and just learn to assimulate

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Connections

Featured in Meet the Team (2003)

User Reviews

Waiting for a remake

Great play, pity about the screenplay is all I can say.

This play remains one of the most insightful views into the world of sports cum business ever scripted. Even truer today than when the play was written, it paints a picture of a club having to face the fact that loyalty and honour don't mean much in the modern game, either to players or their employers. Those who don't or won't accept the new hard nosed and ruthless system seem destined to fail - although the final scene offers a glimmer of hope. The whole thing is served with a big dash of humour - the scene where the bumbling old Jock unknowingly tokes up with troubled star player Geoff and is led through an increasingly unbelievable story of Geoff's patricide and attraction for his sister is priceless.

It is a far deeper examination of the different views of the game and motives of the characters than Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday, which is a thousand times more flashy but also considerably more simplistic and unsubtle in its characterisations.

So it is a great play, and if you don't have a theatrical of it handy, the film is better than just reading it.

But the film was made on low production values and without much desire for realism. As a result, there is a significant cringe effect, which distracts from the point of the film. The scene of Collingwood training with a total of about six guys kicking a couple of footballs around encapsulates the refusal of the producers to just go the extra few yards to make this film a little realistic.

If the play is on, see it. Such is the quality of the play, hopefully sooner or later there will be a film remake. Otherwise, see the film, but ignore the visuals and concentrate on the screenplay.