The Final Winter (2007)

Directors:

Brian Andrews
Jane Forrest

Writer:

Matthew Nable (writer)

Release Date:

6 September 2007 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Plot:

A rugby league player in the early 1980's battles against the changing game and the betrayal of those he has been loyal to. Alienated and desperate, he struggles to keep an identity he fears he'll be lost without.

Plot Keywords:

Rugby League | Football | Australia | Australian Life

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Matthew Nable	...	Grub (as Matt Nable)
Nathaniel Dean	...	Trent
Matthew Johns	...	Jack
John Jarratt	...	Colgate
Raelee Hill	...	Emma
Conrad Coleby	...	Billy
Michelle Langstone	...	Mia
Kate Mulvany	...	Kate
Brad Johns	...	Thommo
Scott Lowe	...	Muddy
Bob Baines	...	Neddy
Jessica Turner	...	Receptionist
Katie Nazer-Hennings	...	Rebecca (as Katie Nazar Hennings)
Tiarnie Coupland	...	Jessica
Anthony Coffey	...	Dunford

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

New Zealand:M

Filming Locations:

Newtown, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

3 Scallywags

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Grub is driving to work on Monday, in the background you can see a sign displaying a business phone number with eight digits. All phone numbers in the Sydney metropolitan area in the 1980s only had seven digits. (On 29 July 1996, a 9 was added to the beginning of all Sydney phone numbers.)

Surprisingly good

I arrived in Sydney in the mid-1980's as a dyed-in-the-wool rugby union man - ex-player, avid follower. But when I saw Sydney rugby league, hard, uncompromising, skillful, I fell in love with it. It was the era dominated by Parramatta and Canterbury. I'd heard about Newtown - foundation club and so on - but like a defeated Prime Minister, the club was gone, and no-one had much interest in it any more.

This movie goes back a few years, to the early 80's, when Newtown was struggling to survive. The old-school league men were being replaced by businessmen. It was an approach that didn't save Newtown, and a decade or so later, when greed and big business combined to create the Super League wars, it drove people away from the game in, well, droves, including me. From someone who used to immerse himself in the game from Friday to Sunday nights, my interest declined to where it is today - about zero.

But nevertheless, I found this movie intensely interesting, arousing some desire to perform further research into the Newtown era. Matt Nable, the Charles Bronson look-alike whom I've never heard of before, and the driving force behind the movie, has done a terrific job of creating a (mostly) polished product. Matthew Johns and Kate Mulvaney were good in supporting roles, but the standout for me was Raelee Hill. I'd seen her in a few TV roles, but in this, she was perfect. The kids were good too.

I wouldn't class this alongside, say, Romulus My Father, but it was still a surprisingly good Aussie movie.